£ 


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THE  TABLE  TALK 

ABRAHAM 
LINCOLN 

(CENTENARY  EDITION) 


EDITED    BY 

WILLIAM  O.  STODDARD 

One  of  his  Private  Secretaries,  and  author 

of  "Abraham  Lincoln,  the  True  Story 

of  a  Great  Life"  etc. 

WITH    FRONTISPIECE 


NEW  YORK 

FREDERICK  A.  STOKES  COMPANY 
PUBLISHERS 


Copyright,   1894*  by 
Frederick  A.  Stokes  Company. 


Contenta. 

PAGE 

PREFACE,       .                     .  .       i 

OF  THE  UNION,          .  " 

OF  MERCY,    .          .          .  .27 

OF  HUMOR,        ...  33 

OF  PERSONAL  LIBERTY,  .     51 

OF  LABOR,         ...  71 

OF  SLAVERY,           .          .  .79 

OF  THE  CIVIL  WAR,  .          .  89 

OF  ASSASSINATION,        .  .113 

OF  TEMPERANCE,      .           .  117 

OF  DIVINE  PROVIDENCE,  .   121 

MISCELLANEOUS,       .  139 


392258 


TABLE  TALK 

OF 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

EOllEU  &J 

WILLIAM  C.  STODDARD, 

One  of  his  Private  Secretaries  1861-4. 


history  of  the  world  presents 
us  with  innumerable  instances 
of  men,  holding  positions  of  power 
over  current  affairs,  whose  verbal 
or  written  utterances  were  among 
the  apparent  forces  of  the  time  to 
which  they  belonged.  With  the 
passing  away  of  the  circumstances, 
the  peculiar  features  of  their  field 
of  action,  a  winnowing  process 
becomes  at  once  observable,  and 
much  which  was  at  first  deemed 
worthy  of  preservation  is  seen  to 
have  lost  its  importance  ;  it  has  no 


2  Bbrabam  OLfncoln. 

enduring  relation  to  history  or  to 
any  probable  action  to  be  taken  by 
other  men,  in  later  times  and  under 
other  circumstances.  It  is  not 
always  well  to  say  that  the  great 
ness  of  these  men  from  whose 
utterances  all  life  departs  in  this 
manner,  was  altogether  attached  to 
the  greatness  of  the  occasions  in 
which  they  acted.  It  may  be  more 
nearly  true  to  say  that  their  per 
sonalities,  however  large,  were  ab 
sorbed  by  the  greatness  of  their 
circumstances,  so  that  nothing  was 
left  for  human  memory  of  them 
when  their  surroundings  passed 
away. 

The  list  is  very  short,  of  men 
whose  words  remain  in  the  minds 
of  men  for  any  length  of  time  after 
the  tomb  has  closed  upon  their 
public  services,  but  very  prominent 
in  this  short  list  is  the  name  of 
Abraham  Lincoln.  He  not  only 


Gable  Galft.  3 

did  things  but  said  and  wrote  things 
which  cannot  be  forgotten.  It  is 
entirely  probable  that,  in  future 
crises  of  the  national  life  which 
owes  so  much  to  him,  thoughtful 
patriots  will  find  themselves  going 
back  to  the  record  of  his  counsels, 
for  wisdom  and  for  strength,  as  to 
some  well  of  unselfish  patriotism, 
digged  by  a  patriarch  of  the  Re 
public  in  a  time  of  unsurpassed  trial 
i  and  drouth.") 

In  other  times,  not  of  trial  at  all, 
but  of  the  ordinary  life  of  each 
successive  generation,  moreover, 
there  is  a  certain  education,  of  no 
small  value,  to  be  gained  by  famil 
iarity  with  the  process  of  thought 
and  feeling  of  the  man  who  was 
enabled  to  endure  so  much  and  to 
act  so  well.  All  smaller  and  espe 
cially  all  younger  patriotisms  have 
much  to  learn  or  to  acquire  from 
his  own,  like  watches  which  should 


4  Bbrabam  ^Lincoln. 

be   set   to   keep  the   true    time— if 
they  can. 

One  measure  or  indication  of  the 
greatness  of  his  personality,  sepa 
rated  from  the  circumstances  in 
which  he  lived,  is  to  be  found  in 
the  fact  that  at  this  day  all  men 
regard  him  as  belonging,  now,  to 
the  entire  nation.^  During  a  part  of 
his  lifetime,  he  was  nominally  the 
chief  of  a  political  party,  the  fore 
most  figure  in  a  prolonged  conflict 
that  was  full  of  the  utmost  rancor 
of  opposing  factions.  After  that, 
he  became  the  director  of  the 
military  and  other  forces  upon  one 
side  of  a  long  and  sanguinary  civil 
war,  and  during  the  years  of  its 
continuance  and  even  for  a  brief 
period  afterwards,  the  animosities 
of  that  terrible  struggle  seemed  to 
concentrate  their  bitterness  upon 
him.  Nevertheless,  few  as  are  the 
years  since  the  termination  of  his 


Sable  ttalfe.  5; 

public  services,  his  name  has  risen, 
above  all  that  tumult,  like  a  star- 
rising  above  a  subsiding  sea,  and 
any  idea  of  partisanship,  or  even  of 
sectionalism,  has  faded  away  from 
the  popular  perception  of  his  char 
acter. 

It  is  more  and  more  clearly  mani 
fest  that  Lincoln  is  so  readily  under 
stood  because  of  the  extreme  sim 
plicity  of  his  nature  and  of  his 
consequent  action.  For  example, 
nobody  would  deny  that  he  was 
ambitious,  in  the  sense  that  ambi 
tion  is  common  to  all  vigorous, 
aspiring  men,  but  there  is  a  settled 
and  general  belief,  or  rather  per 
ception,  that  anything  in  the  nature 
of  personal  or  selfish  ambition  was 
burned  away  in  the  furnace  through 
which  he  passed  and  that  its  idea 
must  now  detach  from  his  memory. 

Many  and  important  as  were  the 
matters  and  measures  he  dealt  with 


6  Bbrabam  Lincoln. 

during  the  stormy  years  of  his 
official  service,  his  state  papers, 
properly  so  called,  were  few. 
Hardly  one  of  them  falls  short, 
however,  of  being  in  itself  an  im 
portant  feature  in  the  record  of  the 
time,  for  all  were  as  forces  set  in 
action  and  producing  perceptible 
results.  Their  condensed  style, 
their  freedom  from  anything  like 
rhetorical  ornament,  their  close 
connection  with  public  business  and 
its  details,  render  them,  for  the 
greater  part  unavailable  for  brief 
quotation  purposes.  Nevertheless, 
the  popular  mind  has  here  and 
there  discovered,  severed  and  pre 
served  wise  utterances  which  have 
become  almost  as  household  words. 
Some  of  Lincoln's  speeches,  be 
fore  his  election  as  President,  pos 
sess  a  similar  value  for  they  are  at 
once  state  papers,  generally  re 
garded  as  such,  then  and  afterwards, 


Gable  ttalfe.  7 

and  they  are  also  as  historical  land 
marks,  measuring  periods  in  the 
progress  of  events. 

His  correspondence,  while  yet  a 
private  citizen,  was  free  but  not 
copious,  and  the  interest  attaching 
to  such  specimens  of  it  as  have 
been  preserved  is  mainly  personal 
or  biographical.  After  he  became 
the  chief  magistrate  of  the  nation, 
he  almost  ceased  to  write  personal 
letters,  or  even  to  read  them.  He 
seemed  to  have  no  longer  any  in 
terests,  hardly  any  thoughts,  apart 
from  the  duties  and  endurances  of 
his  official  position.  The  few  let 
ters  that  he  did  write  were  almost 
as  if  they  had  been  addressed  to 
the  nation,  rather  than  to  individ 
uals,  and  some  of  their  words  may 
be  treasured  as  public  heirlooms. 

A  study  of  the  utterances  which 
are  now  regarded  as  peculiarly  ex 
pressing  his  wisdom,  his  developed 


8  Bora  bam  xrncoin, 

character,  or  his  convictions  con 
cerning  truth,  discovers  the  fact 
that  hardly  any  of  them  are  of  any 
earlier  date  than  the  year  1856. 
Very  nearly  all  that  are  of  marked 
importance  belong  to  the  last  seven 
years  of  his  life.  They  seem  to 
attest  that,  in  comparison  with  this 
period,  the  years  of  his  greatest 
public  service  and  personal  trial, 
all  the  years  preceding  it  were 
short.  There  were  certainly  more 
than  forty  years  that  were  as  youth, 
as  schooling,  as  varied  methods  of 
preparation.  Afterwards,  the  mere 
almanac-measure  became  of  less 
account  and  it  is  by  no  means  a 
mere  figure  of  speech  to  say  that  he 
had  lived  long  and  was  older  than 
other  men  when  he  died, — at  fifty- 
six. 

Wide  as  was  Lincoln's  fame  as  an 
orator,  comparatively  few  of  his  po 
litical  speeches  were  reported.  Even 


Gable  Galfc.  9 

the  great  speech,  by  some  declared 
his  greatest,  in  its  power  and  con 
sequences,  delivered  before  the 
Bloomington  Convention,  in  1856, 
found  no  record  whatever.  It  was 
the  beginning  of  his  new  career,  and, 
after  that,  whatever  he  said  was 
considered  worth  preserving. 

This  latter  idea  soon  extended  to 
many  sayings  which  were  of  a  con 
versational  nature,  and  in  dealing 
with  any  pointed  presentation  of 
them  it  is  necessary  to  take  into 
consideration  the  trustworthiness  of 
the  hearer  who  recorded  them.  By 
this  process,  a  large  mass  of  mate- 
ials  loosely  attributed  to  Mr.  Lincoln 
has  been  long  since  ruled  out  as,  at 
best,  apocryphal.  Only  such  utter 
ances  as  are  believed  to  be  authen 
tic  and  fairly  accurate  in  form  of 
expression  are  included  in  this  se 
lection. 

WILLIAM  O.  STODDARD. 


OF  THE  UNION. 

j\^ANY  of  the  utterances  of  Lin 
coln,  both  public  and  private, 
before  and  after  he  became  Presi 
dent,  and  many  of  his  more  important 
public  acts,  can  be  better  understood 
after  accepting  his  own  repeated  as 
sertions  of  his  singleness  of  purpose. 
The  very  breadth  of  his  perception 
of  the  nation's  need  and  the  un 
swerving  character  of  his  own  de 
termination,  prevented  his  resulting 
policy  from  being  either  compre 
hended  or  approved  by  a  multitude 
composed  of  both  his  friends  and 
his  enemies.  Eager  and  enthusias 
tic  men,  some  of  them  of  great 
ability,  felt  sure  and  freely  declared 
that  they,  would  do  differently,  that 


12  Bbrabam  Htncoln. 

is,  better,  if  they  were  in  his  place. 
It  is  interesting,  therefore,  at  this 
distance  of  time,  to  look  back  and 
see  how  much  of  his  success  in 
contending  with  manifold  obstacles, 
was  due  to  the  fact  that  he  never 
allowed  himself  to  lose  sight,  for  a 
moment,  of  the  one  paramount  duty 
imposed  upon  him,  the  perpetu 
ation  of  American  nationality  in  its 
integrity.  To  this  all  other  things, 
including  the  lives  of  men,  white  or 
black,  the  accustomed  forms  of 
statutory  law,  and  even  the  appar 
ently  rigid  barriers  of  the  written 
Constitution,  must  be  regarded  as 
secondary.  It  is  now  almost  evident 
that  if  he  had  thought  and  acted 
otherwise,  success  would  have  been 
impossible.  For  instance,  if  he  had 
allowed  himself  to  place  the  aboli 
tion  of  slavery  first,  serving  a  part 
instead  of  the  whole,  then  the 
whole  would  have  been  last,  slavery 


Galft.  13 

would  not  have  been  abolished  and 
the  result  of  the  civil  war  would 
not  have  been  what  it  now  is,  a 
permanent  and  forever  increasing 
good  to  the  people  of  the  entire 
Union,  to  the  South  even  more 
than  to  the  North. 
• 

SPEECH  AT  SPRINGFIELD,  ILLS.,  JUNE 
17,  1858. 

"  In  my  opinion  it  (the  agitation 
of  the  slavery  question)  will  not 
cease  until  a  crisis  has  been  reached 
and  passed.  '  A  house  divided 
against  itself  cannot  stand/  I  be 
lieve  this  Government  cannot  en 
dure  permanently,  half  slave  and 
half  free.  I  do  not  expect  the 
Union  to  be  dissolved ;  I  do  not 
expect  the  house  to  fall  ;  but  I  do 
expect  it  will  cease  to  be  divided. 
It  will  become  all  one  thing  or  all 
the  other.  Either  the  opponents  of 
slavery  will  arrest  the  further  spread 


14  Bbrabam  ^Lincoln. 

of  it,  and  place  it  where  the  public 
mind  shall  rest  in  the  belief  that  it 
is  in  process  of  ultimate  extinction  ; 
or  its  advocates  will  push  it  forward 
till  it  shall  become  alike  lawful  in 
all  the  States,  old  as  well  as  new, 
North  as  well  as  South." 
B 

REPLY  TO  MAYOR  WOOD,  NEW  YORK, 
FEB.  ao,  1861. 

"  There  is  nothing  that  could  ever 
bring  me  to  consent — willingly  to 
consent — to  the  destruction  of  this 
Union,  unless  it  would  be  that  thing 
for  which  the  Union  was  made.  I 
understand  that  the  ship  is  made 
for  the  carrying  and  preservation 
of  the  cargo;  and  so  long  as  the 
ship  is  safe,  with  the  cargo,  it  shall 
not  be  abandoned.  This  Union 
shall  never  be  abandoned,  unless 
the  possibility  of  its  existence  shall 
cease  to  exist,  without  the  necessity 
of  throwing  the  passengers  and 


Gable  Galfc.  15 

cargo  overboard.  So  long,  then,  as 
it  is  possible  that  the  prosperity  and 
liberties  of  this  people  can  be  pre 
served  within  this  Union,  it  shall  be 
my  purpose  at  all  times  to  preserve 
it." 

• 

INAUGURAL  ADDRESS,  1861. 

"  I  hold  that,  in  contemplation 
of  universal  law,  and  of  the  Consti 
tution,  the  Union  of  these  States 
is  perpetual.  Perpetuity  is  im 
plied,  if  not  expressed,  in  the  funda 
mental  law  of  all  National  Govern 
ments.  It  is  safe  to  assert  that  no 
government  proper  ever  had  a  pro 
vision  in  its  organic  law  for  its 
own  termination.  Continue  to  ex 
ecute  all  the  express  provisions  of 
our  National  Government,  and  the 
Union  will  endure  forever — it  being 
impossible  to  destroy  it,  except  by 
some  action  not  provided  for  in  the 
instrument  itself/' 


10  Bbtabam  ^Lincoln. 

"  Physically  speaking,  we  cannot 
separate  ;  cannot  remove  our  re 
spective  sections  from  each  other, 
nor  build  an  impassable  wall  between 
them.  A  husband  and  wife  may  be 
divorced  and  go  out  of  the  presence 
and  beyond  the  reach  of  each  other, 
but  the  different  parts  of  our  country 
cannot  do  this.  They  must  remain 
face  to  face,  and  intercourse,  amica 
ble  or  hostile,  must  continue  between 
them." 

• 

INAUGURAL  ADDRESS,  MARCH  4,  1861. 

"This  country,  with  its  institu 
tions,  belongs  to  the  people  who  in 
habit  it.  Whenever  they  shall  grow 
weary  of  the  existing  government, 
they  can  exercise  the  constitutional 
right  of  amending,  or  their  revolu 
tionary  right  to  dismember  or  over 
throw  it.  I  cannot  be  ignorant  of 
the  fact  that  many  worthy  and 
patriotic  citizens  are  desirous  of 


XTable  (Talk*  17 

having    the    national     constitution 
amended." 

• 

MESSAGE  TO  CONGRESS,  MARCH,  4,  1861. 

"This  relative  matter  of  national 
power  and  State  rights,  as  a  princi 
ple,  is  no  other  than  the  principle  of 
generality  and  locality.  Whatever 
concerns  the  whole  should  be  con 
fided  to  the  whole — to  the  general 
government  ;  while  whatever  con 
cerns  only  the  State  should  be  left 
exclusively  to  the  State." 
• 

SPECIAL   MESSAGE  TO  CONGRESS, 
MARCH  6,  1862. 

"  In  the  annual  message,  last 
December,  I  thought  fit  to  say,  «  The 
Union  must  be  preserved ;  and 
hence  all  indispensable  means  must 
be  employed.'  I  said  this  not  has 
tily,  but  deliberately.  War  has 
been  made  and  continues  to  be  an 
indispensable  means  to  this  end." 


is  Bbrabam  Xincoln, 

EXPLANATORY  MESSAGE  TO  CON 
GRESS, 

May  29th,  1862,  concerning  the 
extraordinary  powers  of  the  Execu 
tive,  exercised  in  the  interim  prior 
to  the  assembling  of  Congress  upon 
July  4th,  1861.  "  Congress  had 
definitely  adjourned.  There  was  no 
time  to  convene  them.  It  became 
necessary  for  me  to  choose  whether, 
using  only  the  existing  means, 
agencies  and  processes,  which  Con 
gress  had  provided,  I  should  let  the 
government  fall  at  once  into  ruin  ; 
or  whether,  availing  myself  of  the 
broader  powers  conferred  by  the 
Constitution  in  cases  of  insurrection, 
I  would  make  an  effort  to  save  it, 
with  all  its  blessings,  for  the  pres 
ent  age  and  for  posterity." 
• 

ANNUAL  MESSAGE  TO  CONGRESS,  JULY 
4,  1861. 

"The  States  have  their  status   in 
the  Union  and  they  have  no  other 


Gable  Galft.  19 

legal  status.  If  they  break  from 
this  they  can  only  do  so  against  law 
and  by  revolution.  The  Union, 
and  not  themselves  separately,  pro 
cured  their  independence  and  their 
liberty.  By  conquest  or  purchase, 
the  Union  gave  each  of  them  what 
ever  of  independence  or  liberty  it 
has.  The  Union  is  older  than  any 
of  the  States,  and,  in  fact,  it  created 
them  as  States.  Originally  some 
dependent  colonies  made  the  Union, 
and,  in  turn,  the  Union  threw  off 
their  old  dependence  for  them  and 
made  them  States,  such  as  they  are. 
Not  one  of  them  ever  had  a  state 
constitution  independent  of  the 
Union.'' 

MESSAGE  TO  CONGRESS,  JULY  4,  z86z. 

"  And  this  issue  embraces  more 
than  the  fate  of  these  United  States. 
It  presents  to  the  whole  family  of 
man  the  question  whether  a  consti- 


20  abrabam  Xinccln* 

tutional  republic  or  democracy — a 
government  of  the  people  by  the 
same  people — can  or  cannot  main 
tain  its  integrity  against  its  domes 
tic  foes.  .  .  It  forces  us  to  ask, 
'  Is  there  in  all  republics  this  inher 
ent  and  fatal  weakness  ?  Must  a 
government,  of  necessity,  be  too 
strong  for  the  liberties  of  its  own 
people  or:  too  weak  to  maintain  its 
own  existence  ?' " 


MESSAGE  TO  CONGRESS,  DECEMBER, 
1862. 

"  A  nation  may  be  said  to  consist 
of  its  territory,  its  people,  and  its 
laws.  The  territory  is  the  only 
part  which  is  of  certain  duration. 
'  One  generation  passeth  away,  and 
another  generation  cometh,  but  the 
earth  abideth  forever/  That  por 
tion  of  the  earth's  surface  which 
is  owned  and  inhabited  by  the 
people  of  the  United  States,  is  well 


ttable  Galfe.  21 

adapted  to  be  the  home  of  one 
national  family,  and  it  is  not  well 
adapted  for  two  or  more.  There  is 
no  line,  straight  or  crooked,  suitable 
for  a  national  boundary  upon  which 
to  divide/' 

B 

SECOND  ANNUAL  MESSAGE,  DEC.  i,  1862. 

"  Fellow  Citizens,  we  cannot  es 
cape  history.  We  of  this  Congress 
and  this  administration  will  be  re 
membered  in  spite  of  ourselves.  No 
personal  significance  or  insignifi 
cance  can  spare  one  or  another  of 
us.  The  fiery  trial  through  which 
we  pass  will  light  us  down,  in  honor 
or  dishonor,  to  the  latest  generation. 
We  say  we  are  for  the  Union.  The 
world  will  not  forget  that  we  say 
this.  We  know  how  to  save  the 
Union.  The  world  knows  we  do 
know  how  to  save  it.  We,  even  we, 
here — hold  the  power  and  bear  the 
responsibility.  In  giving  freedom  to 


22  Bbrabam  Lincoln* 

the  slave ,  we  assure  freedom  to  the 
free — honorable  alike  in  what  we 
give  and  what  we  preserve.  We 
shall  nobly  save,  or  meanly  lose  the 
last,  best  hope  of  earth." 

m 

LETTER   TO  CUTHBERT  BULLITT, 
NEW  ORLEANS,  JULY  27,  1862. 

"  I  shall  not  do  more  than  I  can, 
but  I  shall  do  all  I  can  to  save  the 
government,  which  is  my  sworn  duty 
as  well  as  my  personal  inclination. 
I  shall  do  nothing  in  malice.  What 
I  deal  with  is  too  vast  for  malicious 
dealing." 

H 

IN    AN    ADDRESS     TO     SENATORS    AND 

REPRESENTATIVES     OF     THE 

BORDER  STATES,  AT  THE 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION, 

JULY,  1862. 

"  Our  common  country  is  in  great 
peril,  demanding  the  loftiest  views 
and  boldest  action  to  bring  a  speedy 
relief.  Once  relieved,  its  form  of 


Gable  Galfc,  23 

government  is  saved  to  the  world  ; 
its  beloved  history  and  cherished 
memories  are  vindicated  !  and  its 
happy  future  fully  assured  and  ren 
dered  inconceivably  grand." 
H 

"  I  shall  do  less  whenever  I  shall 
believe  what  I  am  doing  hurts  the 
cause,  and  I  shall  do  more  whenever 
I  shall  believe  doing  more  will  help 
the  cause. 

"  I  shall  try  to  correct  errors  when 
shown    to    be    errors,  and    I    shall 
adopt  new  views  so  fast  as  they  are 
shown  to  be  true  views." 
B 

RELATING  TO  THE  UNION  MEN  OF 
WEST    VIRGINIA,    DEC.  31,  1862. 

"  It  is  said,  the  devil  takes  care 
of  his  own.  Much  more  should  a 
good  spirit — the  spirit  of  the  Con 
stitution  and  the  Union — take  care 
of  its  own,  I  think  it  cannot  do 
less  and  live." 


24  :aorat>am  ^Lincoln* 

LETTER  TO    REVERDY JOHNSON, 
JULY  26,   1862. 

"  I  am  a  patient  man — always  will 
ing  to  forgive  on  the  Christian 
terms  of  repentance,  and  also  to  give 
ample  time  for  repentance.  Still,  I 
must  save  this  government,  if  possi 
ble.  What  I  cannot  do,  of  course  I 
will  not  do  ;  but  it  may  as  well  be 
understood,  once  for  all,  that  I  shall 
not  surrender  this  game  leaving  any 
available  card  unplayed." 


REPLY  TO  THE   WORKINGMEN  OF 
LONDON,    ENG.,  FEB.  2,  1863. 

"  The  resources,  advantages  and 
powers  of  the  American  people  are 
very  great,  and  they  have  conse 
quently  succeeded  to  equally  great 
responsibilities.  It  seems  to  have 
devolved  upon  them  to  test  whether 
a  government  established  on  the 
principles  of  human  freedom  can  be 
maintained  against  an  effort  to  build 


(Table  3alfe<  25 

one  upon  the  exclusive  foundation 
of  human  bondage." 

B 

LETTER  TO  THE  WORKINGMEN   OF 
MANCHESTER,  ENG.,  FEB.  9,  1863. 

uWhen  I  came,  on  the  4th  of 
March,  1861,  through  a  free  and  con 
stitutional  election,  to  preside  in 
the  government  of  the  United 
States,  the  country  was  found  on 
the  verge  of  civil  war.  Whatever 
might  have  been  the  cause,  or  who 
soever  at  fault,  one  duty,  paramount 
to  all  others,  was  before  me,  namely, 
to  maintain  and  preserve  at  once  the 
Constitution  and  the  integrity  of  the 
Federal  Republic.  A  conscientious 
purpose  to  perform  this  duty  is  the 
key  of  all  the  measures  of  adminis 
tration  which  have  been  and  to  all 
which  shall  hereafter  be  pursued. 
Under  our  form  of  government,  and 
my  official  oath,  I  could  not  de 
part  from  the  purpose  if  I  would. 


26  Bbrabam  Lincoln. 

It  is  not  always  in  the  power  of 
governments  to  enlarge  or  restrict 
the  scope  of  moral  results  which 
follow  the  politics  which  they  may 
deem  it  necessary  for  the  public 
safety  from  time  to  time  to  adopt." 


OF  MERCY. 

TINCOLN  was  an  embodiment  of 
the  general  aversion  of  the 
American  people  to  the  taking  away 
of  human  life.  Blood  is  to  be  shed 
upon  the  battlefield,  but  with  a  con 
tinual  assertion  that  war  is  in  itself 
hateful.  The  death  penalty  may  be 
inflicted,  elsewhere,  even  in  time  of 
peace,  but  only  under  pressure  of 
extreme  circumstances  and  with 
ample  justification.  Much  more 
than  this  was  also  true,  however, 
and  a  number  of  Lincoln's  most  not 
able  successes  as  a  lawyer  were  won 
in  defending  almost  hopeless  men 
who  were  standing  under  the  shadow 
of  the  gallows.  When  afterwards, 
he  became  endowed  with  an  oppres- 


28  Hbrabam  Lincoln. 

sive  abundance  of  pardoning  power, 
it  was  not  merely  the  exercise  of  it 
in  many  cases  that  so  drew  out  to 
him  the  hearts  of  all  merciful 
people  : — it  was  the  sympathetic 
eagerness  with  which  he  sought, 
from  day  to  day,  to  rescue  every 
man  for  whom  he  could  conscien 
tiously  intervene.  His  personal 
resistance  to  the  arguments  for  rigid 
discipline  made  by  his  military  com 
manders  ;  his  personal  visits  to  the 
camps  and  tents  and  cells  of  the 
condemned ;  the  touching  scenes, 
in  his  office  at  the  White  House, 
between  him  and  those  whose  peti 
tions  for  the  pardon  of  culprits 
whom  they  loved  he  was  struggling 
to  grant  or  dreading  to  refuse  ;  all 
became  known  to  his  fellow-citizens 
as  so  many  photographs  of  the  man. 
Not  all  who  were  condemned  could 
be  spared,  even  by  Lincoln,  but  in 
every  case  it  must  be  recorded  that 


Sable  Galfc.  29 

he  did  what  he  could.  At  the  same 
time,  he  said  but  little,  for  the  acts 
of  mercy  were  enough,  without 
explanation. 

• 

IN   A  MESSAGE  TO  CONGRESS,  JULY  27, 
1862. 

"  The    severest   justice    may    not 
always  be  the  best  policy." 
H 

To  an  Illinois  friend,  asking  par 
don  for  a  soldier  condemned  to  be 
shot  for  a  purely  technical  '  deser 
tion": 

"  Well,  I  think  the  boy  can  do  us 
more  good  above  ground  than  under 
ground." 

B 

On  pardoning  twenty-four  deser 
tions  at  once,  all  of  whom  were 
sentenced  to  be  shot,  he  said  to  a 
general  who  objected,  "  Mercy  to 
the  few  is  cruelty  to  the  many." 

"  Mr.  General,  there   are  already 


30  Bbrabam  ^Lincoln. 

too  many  weeping  widows  in  the 
United  States,  For  God's  sakt 
don't  ask  me  to  add  to  the  number, 
for  I  won't  do  it." 

H 
To  Gen.  B.  F.  Butler,  1863,  when 

the  general  asked  for  the  pardon  of 
a  man  whom  he  himself  had  sen 
tenced  to  be  shot  : 

"  You  ?  Asking  me  to  pardon 
some  poor  fellow  ? — Give  me  that 
pen  !  " 

HI 

After  listening  to  a  plea  on  behalf 
of  a  soldier  condemned  to  death  : 

"  Well  !— I  don't  believe  shooting 
will  do  him  any  good. — Give  me 
that  pen." 

H 

To  a  friend,  who  had  obtained 
from  him  a  pardon  for  a  deserter  : 

"  Some  of  our  generals  complain 
that  I  impair  discipline  and  subordi 
nation  in  the  army  by  my  pardons 
and  respites,  but  it  makes  me  rested, 


Cable  £alfc,  31 

after  a  hard  day's  work,  if  I  can 
find  some  good  excuse  for  saving  a 
man's  life." 

• 
To  a  man  who  had  applied   for  a 

pardon  for  his  son,  condemned  to  be 
shot.  A  direct  pardon  could  not 
be  given,  under  the  circumstances, 
but  the  president  had  written  : 

"  Job  Smith  is  not  to  be  shot  until 
further  orders  from  me," — and  the 
anxious  father  had  begged  for 
something  more  definite.  Said  Mr. 
Lincoln. 

"  Well,  my  old  friend,  I  see  you 
are  not  very  well  acquainted  with 
me.  If  your  son  never  looks  on 
death  till  further  orders  come  from 
me,  to  shoot  him,  he  will  live  to  be 
a  great  deal  older  than  Methusaleh." 


LETTER  TO  J.  G.  HODGES,  FRANKFORT, 

KY.,  APRIL  4,  1864,  CONCERNING 

EMANCIPATION. 

"  Was    it     possible    to   lose    the 


32  Bbtabam  Xincoln* 

nation  and  yet  preserve  the  Con 
stitution  ?  By  general  law,  life  and 
limb  must  be  protected  ;  yet  often 
a  limb  must  be  amputated  to  save 
a  life,  but  a  life  is  never  wisely  given 
to  save  a  limb/' 


OF  HUMOR. 

v£T  great  deal  has  been  said  of 
Lincoln's  keen  appreciation  of 
the  wit  and  humor  of  others  and  of 
his  own  faculty  for  employing  wit 
and  humor,  and  even  broad  bur 
lesque  as  an  orator  and  in  conversa 
tion.  It  is  very  nearly  true,  however, 
that  he  rarely  told  a  joke  or  even  a 
good  story  for  its  own  sake, — for 
mere  amusement.  Their  value  to 
him  was  rather  illustrative,  or  to 
sharpen  the  point  of  an  argument, 
or  to  expose  a  weakness  in  the 
position  taken  by  an  adversary. 
To  this  is  due  the  fact  that  so  few 
of  his  good  hits  have  been  preserved 
or  can  be  made  to  present  their 
original  quality  apart  from  the 


34  Bbrabam  'Lincoln, 

persons  and  the  circumstances.  No 
special  effort  has  here  been  made, 
therefore,  to  collect  the  shrewd,  or 
dry,  or  caustic  utterances  which 
made  some  men  laugh  and  others 
wince. 

He  found  yet  another  important 
use  in  his  faculty  for  enjoying  the 
ludicrous  and  of  being  amused  by 
the  grotesque.  It  brought  him 
exceedingly  helpful  relief. 

One  morning,  in  1862,  when  the 
hearts  of  all  men  were  heavy,  an 
Ohio  Congressman,  a  personal 
friend,  called  to  see  him  with 
reference  to  important  affairs. 
Before  making  any  other  response, 
the  president  began  to  tell  a  humor 
ous  story  that  seemed  to  fit  and  his 
friend  arose  at  once  exclaiming  : 

"  Mr.  President,  I  did  not  come 
here,  this  morning,  to  hear  stories  ; 
it  is  too  serious  a  time  !  " 

"  Ashley,"      responded      Lincoln, 


Sable  Galfe*  35 

quickly,  "  sit  down  !  I  respect  you,  as 
an  earnest,  sincere  man.  You  can 
not  be  more  anxious  than  I  have 
been,  constantly,  since  the  beginning 
of  the  war  ;  and  I  say  to  you,  now, 
that  were  it  not  for  this  occasional 
vent,  I  should  die  !  " 

Strictly  in  keeping  with  this  is  the 
otherwise  incongruous,  inexplicable 
fact  that  when  he  called  his  cabinet 
together  to  read  to  them  his  draft 
of  the  Emancipation  Proclamation, 
he  began  by  reading  to  them  a 
chapter  from  "  Artemas  Ward,  His 
Book/'  and  laughing  heartily  at  its 
crude  grotesqueries.  At  the  end  of 
that  chapter,  his  overstrained  mind 
had  recovered  its  tone. 


Mr.    Lincoln    once    remarked   to 
Mr.  Noah  Brooks  : 

"  I  remember  a  good  story  when 
\      I  hear  it,  but  I  never  invented  any- 


36  Bbtabam  ^Lincoln. 

thing  original  :  I  am  only  a  retail 
dealer." 


At  the  very  outset  of  the  war, 
sundry  wise  men  from  New  York 
urged  Mr.  Lincoln  to  draw  away 
Confederate  armies  from  Washing 
ton  by  naval  attacks  upon  South 
ern  seaports.  It  reminded  him,  he 
said,  of  a  New  Salem,  Ills,  girl,  who 
was  troubled  with  a  "  singing  in  her 
head,"  for  which  there  seemed  to 
be  no  remedy,  but  a  neighbor  prom 
ised  a  cure  if  they  would  "  make  a 
plaster  of  psalm  tunes  and  apply  to 
her  feet  and  draw  the  singing  down." 

S3 

At  the  time  when  General  Burn- 
side's  force  was  besieged  in  Knox- 
ville,  Tenn.,  with  an  apparent  dan 
ger  of  being  starved  into  surren 
der,  a  telegram  came  one  day,  from 
Cumberland  Gap,  arnouncing  that 


{Table  ttatfc.  37 

"  Firing  is  heard  in  the  direction 
of  Knoxville." 

"  Glad  of  it !  "  exclaimed  Mr, 
Lincoln. 

"  Why  should  you  be  glad  of  it  ?  " 
asked  a  friend  who  was  present,  in 
some  surprise. 

"Why,  you  see,"  he  explained^ 
"  it  reminds  me  of  Mrs.  Sallie  Ward, 
a  neighbor  of  mine.  She  had  a  very 
large  family.  Occasionally  one  of 
her  numerous  progeny  would  be 
heard  crying,  in  some  out-of-the- 
way  place  and  she  would  exclaim, 
*  There's  one  of  my  children  that 
isn't  dead  yet  ! '  " 

B 

A  gentleman  from  California,  a 
firm  supporter  of  the  government, 
had  tried  to  obtain  a  pass  through 
the  lines  to  visit  a  brother  in  Vir 
ginia  who  was  also  a  Union  man. 
Having  failed  to  obtain  any  devia 
tion  from  the  army  regulations,  he 


3*  Bbtabam  ^Lincoln. 

called  upon  the   President  with  his 
petition. 

"Have  you  applied  to  General 
Halleck?"  asked  Mr.  Lincoln. 

"  Yes,  and  met  with  a  flat  refusal." 

"  Then  you  must  see  Stanton," 

"  I  have,"  said  the  applicant  rue 
fully,  "and  the  result  was  the 
same.'' 

"Well,  then,"   said  Mr.  Lincoln, 
"  I   can  do  nothing  ;  for  you  must 
know  that  I  have  very  little  influ 
ence  with  this  Administration." 
H 

No  doubt  Mr.  Lincoln  sufficiently 
appreciated  the  good  qualities  of 
ex-President  Fillmore,  then  living, 
but  a  mention  of  him,  one  evening, 
brought  out  a  shot  at  the  Vice- 
Presidential  succession. 

"  Just  after  Taylor's  death,  when 
Fillmore  succeeded  him,  Fillmore 
needed  to  buy  a  carriage.  Some 
gentleman  here  was  breaking  up 


Halfc.  39 

housekeeping  and  had  one  for  sale 
and  Fillmore  took  Edward  (the  old 
doorkeeper  of  the  White  House) 
with  him,  when  he  went  to  look  at 
it.  It  seemed  to  be  a  pretty  good 
turnout,  but  Fillmore  looked  it 
carefully  over  and  then  asked  Ed 
ward,  i  How  do  you  think  it  will  do 
for  the  President  of  the  United 
States  to  ride  in  a  second-hand 
carriage  ? ' 

"'Sure,  your  Excellency/  replied 
Edward,  l  you're   ownly  a  siccond- 
hand  Prisident,  you  know.'  " 
• 

At  the  very  last,  when  the  armies 
of  the  Confederacy  were  surrender 
ing  or  disbanding,  the  question  was 
asked  Mr.  Lincoln  : 

"What  will  you  do  with  '  Jeff 
Davis '  ? " 

"  Well,"  replied  Mr.  Lincoln, 
"  there  was  a  boy  in  Springfield 
.who  saved  up  his  money  and  bought 


40  Bbrabam  Hfncoln. 

a  'coon,  but,  after  the  novelty  wore 
off,  it  became  a  great  nuisance. 
He  was  one  day  leading  him  through 
the  streets  and  had  his  hands  full 
to  keep  clear  of  the  little  vixen, 
who  had  torn  his  clothes  half  off  of 
him.  At  length  he  sat  down  on  the 
curbstone,  completely  fagged  out. 
A  man  passing  was  stopped  by  the 
lad's  disconsolate  appearance,  and 
asked  what  was  the  matter. 

"  Oh/'  said  the  boy,  "  this  'coon's 
such  a  trouble  to  me." 

"Why  don't  you  get  rid  of  him 
then  ?  "  asked  the  sympathizer. 

"  Hush,"  said  the  boy,  "  don't  you 
see  he  is  gnawing  his  rope  off  ?  I'm 
going  to  let  him  do  it,  and  then  I'll 
go  home  and  tell  the  folks  he  got 
away  from  me." 

H 

Mr.  Alexander  H.  Stephens  re 
lates  that  during  the  famous  "  peace 
conference,"  on  a  steamer  in  Hamp- 


Gable  Galfc,  41 

ton  Roads,  between  President  Lin 
coln  and  the  three  Confederate 
Commissioners,  one  of  them,  Mr. 
Hunter,  insisted  that  the  recognition 
of  the  power  of  President  Jefferson 
Davis  to  make  a  treaty  was  the  first 
and  indispensable  step  to  peace. 
He  referred  to  the  correspondence 
between  Charles  I.  and  his  Parlia 
ment  as  a  trustworthy  precedent  of 
a  constitutional  ruler  dealing  with 
rebels. 

Mr.  Lincoln  put  on  an  expression 
of  grim,  sarcastic  humor  as  he 
replied  : 

"  Upon  questions  of  history,  I 
must  refer  you  to  Mr.  Seward,  for 
he  is  posted  in  such  things,  and  I 
don't  pretend  to  be  bright.  My 
only  distinct  recollection  of  the 
'  matter  is  that  Charles  lost  his  head." 

H 

Not  a  great  while  before  Mr.  Lin 
coln's  second  nomination,  a  friend 


42  Bbrabam  Lincoln. 

mentioned  to  him  the  well-known 
fact  that  a  member  of  the  Cabinet 
was  also  a  probable  presidential 
candidate  : 

"  You  were  brought  up  on  a  farm, 
were  you  not  ?  "  he  replied.  "  Then 
you  know  what  a  '  chin-fly  '  is. 
My  brother  and  I  were  once 
ploughing  on  an  Illinois  farm.  I 
was  driving  the  horse  and  he  was 
holding  the  plough.  The  horse 
was  lazy  ;  but  on  one  occasion  he 
rushed  across  the  field  so  that  I 
with  my  long  legs  could  scarcely 
keep  up  with  him.  On  reaching  the 
end  of  the  furrow,  I  found  an  enor 
mous  chin-fly  fastened  on  him  and 
knocked  it  off.  My  brother  asked 
me  what  I  did  that  for.  I  told  him 
I  didn't  want  the  old  horse  bitten  in 
that  way.  *  Why/  said  my  brother, 
'that's  all  that  made  him  go  !  ' 

Now  if  Mr. has  a  presidential 

chin-fly    biting  him,  I'm  not  going 


trame  xrara.  43 

to  knock  it  off,  if  it  will  only  make 
his  Department  go." 
• 

Among  the  European  soldiers 
who  from  time  to  time  came  over 
and  offered  to  serve  in  the  Union 
armies  was  one  young  man  who,  on 
receiving  his  commission  as  lieuten 
ant,  assured  the  President  that  he 
belonged  to  the  oldest  nobility  of 
Germany.  "  Oh  !  "  replied  Mr.  Lin 
coln.  "  Never  mind  that.  You  will 
not  find  that  to  be  an  obstacle  to 
your  advancement." 
H 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  one  day  asked  : 

"  How  many  men  do  you  suppose 
the  Confederates  have  now  in  the 
field?" 

"  Twelve  hundred  thousand,  ac 
cording  to  the  best  authority,"  was 
the  prompt  reply. 

u  Good  Heavens  !  "  exclaimed  the 
inquirer. 


44  Bbrabam  ^Lincoln. 

"  Yes,  sir,  twelve  hundred  thou 
sand.  No  doubt  of  it.  You  see, 
all  our  generals,  when  they  get 
whipped,  say  the  enemy  outnum 
bers  them  from  three  or  five  to  one, 
and  I  must  believe  them.  We  have 
four  hundred  thousand  in  the  field 
and  three  times  four  makes  twelve. 
Don't  you  see  it  ?" 

H 

The  result  of  the  great  conflict 
Deemed  to  be  in  more  doubt  than 
ever,  just  after  the  Emancipation 
Proclamation.  Mr.  Lincoln  ex 
pressed  his  own  view  of  the  situa 
tion  with  :  "We  are  a  good  deal 
like  whalers  who  have  been  long  on 
a  chase.  At  last  we  have  got  our 
harpoon  fairly  into  the  monster ; 
but  we  must  look  out  how  we  steer, 
or  with  one  flop  of  his  tail  he  will 
yet  send  us  all  into  eternity  !  " 
• 

During  one  of   the  long   periods 


Gable  Galfc.  45 

of  inaction  of  the  Army  of  the  Poto 
mac,  the  President  remarked  to  a 
corps-commander  and  another  gen 
tleman  with  whom  he  was  discuss 
ing  military  matters  : 

"  If  something  is  not  done  pretty 
soon,  the  bottom  will  fall  out  of  the 
whole  affair,  and  if  General  Mc- 
Clellan  doesn't  want  to  use  the 
army,  I'd  like  to  borrow  it  of  him — 
provided  I  could  see  how  it  could 
be  made  to  do  something/' 

• 

While  General  Grant's  ability  as  a 
commander  was  yet  in  doubt,  a 
storm  of  criticisms  assailed  him. 
At  one  time  during  the  siege  of 
Vicksburg,  a  delegation  of  his  critics 
waited  upon  the  President  and  vig 
orously  demanded  the  substitution 
of  some  other  general. 

"Well,  well,"  responded  Mr.  Lin 
coln,  "  but  why  should  Grant  be  re 
moved  ?  *' 


46  Hbrabam  ^Lincoln. 

"Why?  Why,  he  drinks  too 
much  whiskey." 

That  particular  accusation  had 
been  withheld  until  that  moment, 
but  now  the  President's  face  put  on 
its  most  caustic  expression  as  he 
responded:  "Ah  !  that's  it!  By 
the  way,  gentlemen,  can  either  of 
you  tell  me  where  General  Grant 
gets  his  whiskey  ?  I  think  I'd  bet 
ter  send  a  barrel  of  that  whiskey  to 
every  general  in  the  field." 
• 

Mr.  Lincoln  had  several  reasons 
for  not  admiring  ex-President 
Tyler  and  a  mention  of  him  on  one 
occasion  brought  out  an  anecdote. 

"  A  year  or  two  after  Tyler's  ac 
cession  to  the  Presidency,"  said  Mr. 
Lincoln,  "  contemplating  an  excur 
sion  in  some  direction,  his  son 
went  to  order  a  special  train  of  cars. 
It  so  happened  that  the  railroad 
superintendent  was  a  very  strong 


Gable  Galfc.  47 

Whig.  On  *  Bob's  '  making  known 
his  errand,  that  official  promptly  in 
formed  him  that  his  road  did  not 
run  special  trains  for  the  President. 

"'What/  said  Bob,  *  did  you  not 
furnish  a  special  train  for  the 
funeral  of  General  Harrison  ? ' 

"'Yes/  said  the  superintendent, 
stroking  his  whiskers  ;  '  and  if  you 
will  only  bring  your  father  here  in 
that  shape,  you  shall  have  the  best 
train  on  the  road/  " 
H 

Concerning  the  probable  political 
strength  of  one  of  the  presidential 
candidates,  in  1864,  Mr.  Lincoln 
gravely  read  to  a  friend  the  account 
in  i  Samuel,  of  David's  forces  at 
the  Cave  of  Adulam  : 

u '  And  every  one  that  was  in  dis 
tress,  and  every  one  that  was  in 
debt,  and  every  one  that  was  dis 
contented,  gathered  themselves 
unto  him,  and  he  became  a  captain 


48  Bbrabam  ^Lincoln, 

over  them,  and  there  were  with  him 
about  four  hundred  men/  " 

a 

SPEECH  TO  THE  NATIONAL  UNION 
LEAGUE,  JUNE  9,  1864. 

."  I  have  not  permitted  myself, 
gentlemen,  to  conclude  that  I  am 
the  best  man  in  the  country  (for 
President)  ;  but  I  am  reminded  in 
this  connection  of  a  story  of  an  old 
Dutch  farmer  who  remarked  to  a 
companion  once  that  *  it  was  not 
best  to  swap  horses  while  crossing 
a  stream.'  ' 

H 

Letter  to  D.  R.  Locke,  1863 ;— a 

satirical  journalist  whose  hits  he  had 
much  enjoyed  : 

"  Why  don't  you  come  to  Washing 
ton  and  see  me  ?  Is  there  any 
place  you  want  ?  Come  on,  and  I 
will  give  you  any  place  you  ask  for 
—that  you  are  capable  of  filling — 
and  fit  to  fill." 


ftabie  Galfc,  49 

CONVERSATION  WITH  D.  R.  LOCKE,  1863. 

"  It's  a  good  thing  for  individuals 
(generals  and  others  in  office)  that 
there  is  a  government  to  shove  over 
their  acts  upon.  No  man's  shoul 
ders  are  broad  enough  to  bear  what 
must  be/' 

H 

The  chairman  of  an  enthusiastic 
delegation  of  emancipationists  was 
a  clergyman  who  plied  him  heavily 
with  scriptural  quotations. 

"Well,  gentlemen,"  replied  Mr. 
Lincoln,  "  it  is  not  often  one  is 
favored  with  a  delegation  direct 
from  the  Almighty." 

H 

The  British  Minister,  Lord  Lyons, 
was  very  much  liked  by  Mr.  Lincoln. 
He  was  a  bachelor.  When  the 
marriage  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  to 
Princess  Alexandra  of  Denmark  re 
quired  announcement,  as  an  affair 
of  state,  the  duty  was  performed 


$o  Bbrabam  Xincoin. 

ceremoniously,  with  an  autograph 
letter  from  Queen  Victoria  to  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  and 
with  a  very  neat  and  cordial  inter 
national  address  from  the  minister. 
The  response  expected  was  such  as 
might  be  sent  by  a  president  to  a 
Queen,  but  Mr.  Lincoln  listened  to 
the  speech,  to  the  end,  and  then 
his  face  lit  up  with  friendly  fun  as 
he  replied  : 

"  Lord    Lyons,    go  thou    and   do 
likewise/' 


OF    PERSONAL 
LIBERTY. 

\TERY  soon  after  the  outbreak  of 
the  civil  war,  the  entire  Ameri 
can  people  discovered,  with  more  or 
less  individual  astonishment,  that 
their  form  of  government  contained 
powers  not  ordinarily  exercised, 
the  operation  of  which  they  had 
never  before  experienced. 

There  was  a  prompt  and  alto 
gether  righteous  inquiry  into  the 
source  and  nature  of  these  powers. 
Following  this  was  a  well  founded 
and  very  general  anxiety  lest,  after 
their  temporary  exercise  in  a  war 
emergency,  there  might  not  be  a  per 
fect  return  to  their  old  time  quies- 


52  Bbrabam  ^Lincoln. 

cent  state,  leaving  the  liberties  of 
the  people  permanently  unabridged 
in  time  of  peace. 

There  were  stormy,  acrimonious 
protests  against  every  unaccustom 
ed  restriction  of  individual  freedom, 
even  for  war  purposes,  and  the 
political  opposition  to  the  Lincoln 
administration  assumed  a  watchful 
censorship.  On  the  other  hand, 
Lincoln  himself  asserted  his  own 
position  and  purpose  as  the  constitu 
tionally  appointed  guardian  of  all 
the  rights  and  liberties  affected 
by  the  temporary  exercise  of  the 
special  powers  in  his  hands.  Not 
only  his  official  acts  but  his  repeated 
utterances  were  a  sufficient  preven 
tive  of  injurious  consequences  which 
might  otherwise  have  been  produced. 
He  watched  against  the  supposed 
peril  more  jealously  than  did  even 
his  critics  themselves,  and,  long  be 
fore  the  end,  the  public  mind  rested, 


Gable  Galft.  53 

satisfied   that  their  treasure   of  per 
sonal  liberty  was  safe  in  his  keeping. 
B 

LECTURE,   AT  SPRINGFIELD,   ILLS., 
JAN.  27,  1837. 

"  I  know  the  American  people- 
are  much  attached  to  their  govern 
ment.  I  know  they  would  suffer 
much  for  its  sake.  I  know  they 
would  endure  evils,  long  and  pa 
tiently,  before  they  would  ever  think 
of  changing  it  for  another.  Yet, 
notwithstanding  all  this,  if  the  laws 
be  continually  despised  and  dis 
regarded  ;  if  their  rights  to  be 
secure  in  their  persons  and  property 
are  held  by  no  better  tenure  than 
the  caprice  of  a  mob,  the  alienation 
of  their  affections  from  the  govern 
ment  is  the  natural  consequence, 
and  to  that,  sooner  or  later,  it  must 
come.  There  is  no  grievance  that 
is  a  fit  object  of  redress  by  mob- 
law." 


54  Bbrabam  ILincoln. 

SPEECH  AT  ALTON,  ILLS.,  OCT.  15,  1858. 

"  It  is  a  general  declaration  in  the 
act  announcing  to  the  world  the  in 
dependence  of  the  thirteen  Ameri 
can  Colonies,  that  all  men  are 
created  equal.  Now,  as  an  abstract 
principle,  there  is  no  doubt  of  the 
truth  of  that  declaration  ;  and  it  is 
desirable,  in  the  original  organiza 
tion  of  society,  and  in  organized 
societies,  to  keep  it  in  view  as  a 
great,  fundamental  principle.  But 
then,  I  apprehend  that  in  no  society 
that  ever  did  exist,  or  ever  shall  be 
formed,  was  or  can  the  equality 
asserted  be  practically  enforced  and 
carried  out." 


SPEECH  AT  PEORIA,  ILLS.    OCT.  17,  1858. 

"What  I  do  say  is,  that  no  man 
is  good  enough  to  govern  another 
man  without  that  other's  consent." 


xrawe  cam.  55 

SPEECH  AT  LEWISTON,  AUG.  17,  1858. 

"  This  (the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence)  was  their  lofty  and  noble 
and  wise  understanding  of  the  jus 
tice  of  the  Creator  to  his  creatures, 
— to  all  his  creatures,  to  the  whole, 
great  family  of  man.  In  their  en 
lightened  belief,  nothing  stamped 
with  the  Divine  image  was  sent  into 
the  world  to  be  trodden  on,  and 
degraded,  and  imbruted,  by  its  fel 
lows.  They  grasped  not  only  the 
whole  race  of  men  then  living,  but 
they  reached  forward  and  seized 
upon  the  remotest  posterity.  .  .  . 
So  that  no  man  should  hereafter 
dare  to  limit  and  circumscribe  the 
great  principles  upon  which  the 
temple  of  liberty  was  being  built." 
H 

SPEECH  AT  PEORIA,  ILLS.,  OCT.  17,  1858. 

"  That  is  the  real  issue.  .  .  . 
It  is  the  eternal  struggle  between 
these  two  principles, —  right  and 


56  Bbtabam  ^Lincoln. 

wrong, —  throughout  the  w  o  r  1  d. 
They  are  the  two  principles  that 
have  stood  face  to  face  from  the  be 
ginning  of  time  ;  and  will  ever  con 
tinue  to  struggle.  The  one  is  the 
common  right  of  humanity  and  the 
other  the  divine  right  of  kings." 
H 

SPEECH  AT    CHICAGO,   ILLS.,    JULY   10, 
1858. 

"  My  friend  has  said  to  me  that  I 
am  a  poor  hand  to  quote  Scripture. 
I  will  try  it  again,  however.  It  is 
said  in  one  of  the  admonitions  of  our 
Lord  :  '  As  your  Father  in  Heaven 
is  perfect,  be  ye  also  perfect.'  The 
Saviour,  I  suppose,  did  not  expect 
any  human  creature  could  be  perfect 
as  the  Father  in  Heaven  ;  but  he 
said  :  *  As  your  Father  in  Heaven 
is  perfect,  be  ye  also  perfect.'  He 
set  that  up  as  a  standard,  and  he 
who  did  most  toward  reaching  that 
standard,  attained  the  highest  de- 


{Table  Galft,  57 

gree  of  moral  perfection.  So  I  say 
in  relation  to  the  principle  that  all 
men  are  created  equal,  let  it  be  as 
nearly  reached  as  we  can.  If  we 
cannot  give  freedom  to  every  crea 
ture,  let  us  do  nothing  that  will 
impose  slavery  upon  any  other  crea 
ture." 

B 

LETTER  TO  A  FRIEND,  1859,  AFTER  THE 
ELECTION. 

"The  fight  must  go  on.  The 
cause  of  civil  liberty  must  not  be 
surrendered  at  the  end  of  one,  or 
even  one  hundred  defeats." 


LETTER  TO     HON.    O.    H.    BROWNING, 
ILLS.,    SEP.    21,    1862,    CONCERNING 
THE  PROCLAMATION  OF   CON 
FISCATION      ISSUED      BY 
GEN.  J.  C.  FREMONT. 

"  It  is  itself  the  surrender  of  the 
government.  Can  it  be  pretended 
that  it  is  any  longer  the  government 
of  the  United  States — any  govern- 


58  Bbrabam  ILtncoln. 

ment  of    constitution    and    laws — 
wherein   a   general   or  a  President 
may  make  permanent  rules  of  prop 
erty  by  proclamation  ? " 
H 

SPEECH     AT     INDEPENDENCE     HALL, 
PHILADELPHIA,  Feb.  20,  1861. 

"  I  have  often  inquired  of  myself 
what  great  principle  or  idea  it  was 
that  kept  this  Confederacy  so  long 
together.  It  was  not  the  mere  mat 
ter  of  the  separation  of  the  colonies 
from  the  mother-land,  but  that  sen 
timent  in  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence  which  gave  liberty,  not 
alone  to  the  people  of  this  country, 
but,  I  hope,  to  the  world,  for  all 
future  time.  It  was  that  which 
gave  promise  that  in  due  time  the 
burden  should  be  lifted  from  the 
shoulders  of  all  men." 

GB 

INAUGURAL  ADDRESS,  1861. 

"  Plainly,  the  central  idea  of  se 
cession  is  the  essence  of  anarchy. 


Cable  Calfe*  59 

A  majority  held  in  restraint  by  con 
stitutional  checks  and  limitations, 
and  always  changing  easily  with 
deliberate  changes  of  popular  opin 
ions  and  sentiments,  is  the  only 
true  sovereign  of  a  free  people. 
Whoever  rejects  it  does,  of  neces 
sity,  fly  to  anarchy  or  despotism. 
Unanimity  is  impossible  ;  the  rule 
of  a  minority,  as  a  permanent  ar 
rangement,  is  wholly  inadmissible  ; 
so  that,  rejecting  the  majority  prin 
ciple,  anarchy  or  despotism  in  some 
form,  is  all  that  is  left." 


LETTER  TO  HON.  REVERDY  JOHNSON, 
THEN  AT  NEW  ORLEANS,  JULY  26,  1862. 

"  The  people  of  Louisiana — all 
intelligent  people,  everywhere — 
know  full  well  that  I  never  had  a  wish 
to  touch  the  foundations  of  their 
society,  or  any  right  of  theirs." 


60  :&urabam  xtncom* 

LETTER    TO     CHARLES     DRAKE,     AND 

OTHERS,  COMMITTEE,    ST.    LOUIS,  MO., 

OCT.  5,  1863. 

"  Actual  war  coming,  blood  grows 
hot  and  blood  is  spilled.  Thought 
is  forced  from  old  channels  into 
confusion.  Deception  breeds  and 
thrives.  Confidence  dies  and  uni 
versal  suspicion  reigns.  Each  man 
feels  an  impulse  to  kill  his  neighbor, 
lest  he  be  killed  by  him.  Revenge 
and  retaliation  follow.  And  all  this, 
as  before  said,  may  be  among  hon 
est  men  only.  But  this  is  not  all. 
Every  foul  bird  comes  abroad,  and 
every  dirty  reptile  rises  up.  These 
add  crime  to  confusion.  Strong 
measures,  deemed  indispensable  but 
harsh  at  best,  such  men  make  worse 
by  mal-administration.  Murders 
for  all  grudges  and  murders  for 
pelf  proceed  under  any  cloak  that 
will  best  serve  for  the  occasion/' 


LETTER    TO     GENERAL     CURTIS,    MO., 
JAN.  2,  1863. 

u  But  I  must  add  that  the  United 
States  Government  must  not,  as  by 
this  order,  undertake  to  run  the 
churches.  When  an  individual  in  a 
church,  or  out  of  it,  becomes  dan 
gerous  to  the  public  interest,  he 
must  be  checked  ;  but  let  the 
churches,  as  such,  take  care  of  them 
selves.  It  will  not  do  for  the  Uni 
ted  States  to  appoint  trustees,  su 
pervisors,  or  other  agents  for  the 
churches." 

H 

REPLY     TO    NEW    YORK     DEMOCRATS, 
JUNE  12,  1863. 

"  I  can  no  more  be  persuaded 
that  the  government  can  constitu 
tionally  take  no  strong  measures  in 
time  of  rebellion,  because  it  can  be 
shown  that  the  same  could  not  be 
lawfully  taken  in  time  of  peace, 
than  I  can  be  persuaded  that  a  par- 


62  Bbtabam  ILfncoln. 

ticular  drug  is  not  good  for  a  sick 
man  because  it  can  be  shown  to  be 
not  good  food  for  a  well  one.  Nor 
am  I  able  to  appreciate  the  danger 
apprehended  by  the  meeting  that 
the  American  people  will,  by  means 
of  military  arrests  during  the  re 
bellion,  lose  the  right  of  public 
discussion,  the  liberty  of  speech  and 
of  the  press,  the  laws  of  evidence, 
trial  by  jury  and  habeas  corpus 
throughout  the  indefinite  peaceful 
future,  which  I  trust  lies  before 
them,  any  more  than  I  am  able  to 
believe  that  a  man  could  contract 
so  strong  an  appetite  for  emetics 
during  temporary  illness  as  to  per 
sist  in  feeding  on  them  during  the 
remainder  of  his  healthful  life.'* 


REPLY  TO  NEW  YORK  DEMOCRATS, 
JUNE  12,  1863. 

"  Habeas     corpus   does     not   dis- 


Sable  Galft.  63 

charge  men  who  are  proven  to  be 
guilty  of  defined  crime  ;  and  its  sus 
pension  is  allowed  by  the  Consti 
tution  on  purpose  that  men  may  be 
arrested  and  held  who  cannot  be 
proved  guilty  of  defined  crime, 
*  when,  in  cases  of  rebellion  or  in 
vasion,  the  public  safety  may  re 
quire  it.'  " 


REPLY  TO  LETTER  FROM  OHIO  DEMO 
CRATS,  JULY  29,  1863. 

"The  Constitution  is  different  in 
its  application  in  cases  of  rebellion 
or  invasion,  involving  the  public 
safety,  from  what  it  is  in  times  of 
profound  peace  and  public  security  ; 
and  this  opinion  I  adhere  to,  simply 
because  by  the  Constitution  itself 
things  may  be  done  in  the  one  case 
which  may  not  be  done  in  the 
other." 


64  Bbrabam  Xmcoln. 

CONCERNING  THE  FREEDOM  OF  THE 

PRESS,  WHEN  URGED  TO  SUPPRESS 

THE  CHICAGO  TIMES. 

"  I  fear  you  do  not  fully  compre 
hend  the  danger  of  abridging  the 
liberties  of  the  people.  Nothing 
but  the  sternest  necessity  can  ever 
justify  it.  A  government  had  bet 
ter  go  to  the  extreme  of  toleration, 
than  do  aught  that  can  be  construed 
into  an  interference  with,  or  to 
jeopardize  in  any  degree,  the  com 
mon  rights  of  its  citizens." 

H 

SPEECH  AT  THE  BALTIMORE  FAIR, 
APRIL  18,  1864. 

"  The  world  is  in  want  of  a  good 
definition  of  the  word  liberty.  We 
all  declare  ourselves  to  be  for 
liberty,  but  we  do  not  all  mean  the 
same  thing.  Some  mean  that  a 
man  can  do  as  he  pleases  with  him 
self  and  his  property.  With  others 
it  means  that  some  men  can  do  as 
they  please  with  other  men  and 


Gable  Galft,  65 

other  men's  labor.  Each  of  these 
things  is  called  liberty,  although 
they  are  entirely  different.  To 
give  an  illustration  :  A  shepherd 
drives  the  wolf  from  the  throat 
of  his  sheep  when  attacked  by  him, 
and  the  sheep  of  course  thanks  the 
shepherd  for  the  protection  of  his 
life  ;  but  the  wolf  denounces  him  as 
despoiling  the  sheep  of  his  liberty— 
especially  if  it  be  a  black  sheep." 

H 

REPLY  TO  MEMBERS  OF  THE  GENERAL 
SYNOD  OF  THE  LUTHERAN  CHURCH, 
AUGUST,  1864. 

"  I  accept  with  gratitude  their  as 
surances  of  the  sympathy  and  sup 
port  of  that  enlightened,  influential, 
and  loyal  class  of  my  fellow-citizens, 
in  an  important  crisis  which  in 
volves,  in  my  judgment,  not  only 
the  civil  and  religious  liberties  of 
our  own  dear  land,  but  in  a  large 
degree  the  civil  and  religious  liber- 


66  Bbrabam  ^Lincoln. 

ties  of  mankind   in   many  countries 
and  through  many  ages." 

H 

SPEECH  AT  A   SERENADE,  SEPT.,  1864. 

"  I  wish  it  might  be  more  gener 
ally  and  universally  understood 
what  the  country  is  now  engaged  in. 
We  have,  as  all  will  agree,  a  free 
country,  where  every  man  has  a 
right  to  be  equal  with  every  other 
man.  In  this  great  struggle  the 
form  of  government  and  every 
form  of  human  right  is  endangered 
if  our  enemies  succeed.  There  is 
more  involved  in  this  contest  than 
is  realized  by  every  one.  There  is 
involved  in  this  struggle  the 
question  whether  your  children  and 
my  children  shall  enjoy  the  privi 
leges  we  have  enjoyed." 
• 

TO  AN  OHIO  REGIMENT,  SEPT.,  1864. 

"  I  happen,  temporarily  to  occupy 
this    big  White   House.       I   am   a 


Cable  3alfe.  67 

living  witness  that  any  of  your 
children  may  look  to  come  here, 
as  my  father's  child  has.  It  is  in 
order  that  each  one  of  you  may 
have,  through  this  free  government 
which  we  have  enjoyed,  an  open 
field  and  a  fair  chance  for  your  in 
dustry,  enterprise  and  intelligence; 
that  you  may  all  have  equal  privi 
leges  in  the  race  of  life,  with  all  its 
desirable  human  aspirations — it  is 
for  this  that  the  struggle  should  be 
maintained,  that  we  may  not  lose 
our  birthrights." 

• 

GETTYSBURG  SPEECH,  NOV.  19,  1863. 

"  That  we  here  highly  resolve 
that  these  dead  shall  not  have  died 
in  vain  ; — that  this  nation,  under 
God,  shall  have  a  new  birth  of  free 
dom  ; — and  that  government  of  the 
people,  by  the  people,  for  the  people, 
shall  not  perish  from  the  earth. " 


68  Bbtabam  ^Lincoln. 

SPEECH  AT  AN  ELECTION  SERENADE, 
NOV.  10,  1864. 

"  It  has  long  been  a  grave  ques 
tion  whether  any  government,  not 
too  strong  for  the  liberties  of  the 
people,  can  be  strong  enough  to 
maintain  its  existence  in  great  emer 
gencies.  But  the  election  .  .  . 
has  demonstrated  that  a  people's 
government  can  sustain  a  national 
election  in  the  midst  of  a  great 
civil  war.  Until  now,  it  has  not 
been  known  to  the  world  that  this 
was  a  possibility." 

B 

SPEECH  AT  A   SERENADE,  OCT.  19,  1864. 

"Their  (the  people's)  will,  consti 
tutionally  expressed,  is  the  ultimate 
law  for  all.  If  they  should  deliber 
ately  resolve  to  have  immediate 
peace,  even  at  the  expense  of  their 
country  and  their  liberties,  I  have 
not  the  power  nor  the  right  to  re 
sist  them.  It  is  their  own  business, 


Gable  Galfc.  69 

and  they  must  do  as  they  please 
with  their  own.  I  believe,  however, 
they  are  still  resolved  to  preserve 
their  country  and  their  liberty  ; 
and  in  this  office  I  am  resolved  to 
stand  by  them." 


ADDRESS  TO  THE  i4gTH  OHIO  REGI 
MENT,  FALL  OF  1864. 

"  But  this  government  must  be 
preserved,  in  spite  of  the  acts  of 
any  man  or  set  of  men.  It  is 
worthy  your  every  effort.  No 
where  in  the  world  is  presented  a 
government  of  so  much  liberty  and 
equality.  To  the  humblest  and 
poorest  amongst  us  are  held  out  the 
highest  privileges  and  positions. 
The  present  moment  finds  me  at  the 
White  House,  yet  there  is  as  good  a 
chance  for  your  children  as  there 
was  for  my  father's." 


OF  LABOR. 

LINCOLN  began  life  as  a 
day  laborer,  under  the  hardest 
conditions,  toiling  for  scanty  and 
often  uncertain  wages.  The  bond 
of  fellowship  between  him  and  all 
other  workingmen,  the  world  over, 
was  never  broken.  They  were  pe 
culiarly  his  people,  and  it  was  for 
them  and  with  them  that  he  believed 
himself  to  be  still  working.  That 
they  understood  him  and  continu 
ally  regarded  him  as  one  of  them 
selves,  was  a  most  important  ele 
ment  in  his  political  influence,  in  his 
power  to  control  and  direct  national 
affairs.  There  was,  however,  so 
little  of  the  demagogue  in  his 
nature  that  he  simply  took  their 


72  Bbrabam  ^Lincoln* 

appreciation  for  granted  and  his 
utterances  concerning  labor  and 
laboring  men  were  brief  and  few  in 
number." 


SPEECH  AT  CINCINNATI,  O.t  SEPT.,  1859. 

"  That  there  is  a  certain  relation 
between  capital  and  labor,  I  admit. 
That  it  does  exist,  and  rightfully 
exists,  I  think  is  true.  That  men 
who  are  industrious,  and  sober,  and 
honest,  in  the  pursuit  of  their  own 
interests,  should  after  awhile  accu 
mulate  capital,  and  after  that  should 
be  allowed  to  enjoy  it  in  peace,  and 
also,  if  they  should  choose,  when 
they  have  accumulated  it,  to  use  it 
to  save  themselves  from  actual  la 
bor  and  hire  other  people  to  labor 
for  them,  is  right.  In  doing  so 
they  do  not  wrong  the  men  they 
employ,  for  they  find  men  who  have 
not  of  their  own  land  to  work  on  or 


cadte  aalR.  73 

shops  to  work  in,  and  who  are  ben 
efited  by  working  for  others,  as 
hired  laborers,  receiving  their  cap 
ital  for  it.  Thus,  a  few  men  that 
own  capital  hire  a  few  others,  and 
these  establish  the  relations  of  cap 
ital  and  labor  rightfully.  A  relation 
of  which  I  make  no  complaint. 
But  I  insist  that  the  relation 
after  all  does  not  embrace  more 
than  one  eighth  of  the  labor  of  the 
country." 

m 

ANNUAL  MESSAGE  TO  CONGRESS, 
DEC.,  1861. 

"  Labor  is  prior  to  and  indepen 
dent  of  capital.  Capital  is  only  the 
fruit  of  labor,  and  could  never  have 
existed  if  labor  had  not  first  exis 
ted.  Labor  is  the  superior  of  cap 
ital  and  deserves  much  the  higher 
consideration." 


74  Bbrabam  Lincoln. 

ANNUAL  MESSAGE,  DEC..  1861. 

"  No  men  living  are  more  worthy 
to  be  trusted  than  those  who  toil  up 
from  poverty, — none  less  inclined  to 
take  or  touch  aught  which  they 
have  not  honestly  earned.  Let 
them  beware  of  surrendering  a  po 
litical  power  which  they  already 
possess,  and  which,  if  surrendered, 
will  surely  be  used  to  close  the 
door  of  advancement  against  such 
as  they,  and  to  fix  new  disabilities 
and  burdens  upon  them,  till  all  of 
liberty  he  lost." 

• 

REPLY    TO    A    COMMITTEE    OF    THE 

WORKINGMEN'S  ASSOCIATION  OF 

NEW  YORK,  MAR.  ax,  1864. 

"The  strongest  bond  of  human 
sympathy,  outside  of  the  family  re 
lation,  should  be  one  uniting  all 
working  people,  of  all  nations,  and 
tongues,  and  kindreds.  Nor  should 
this  lead  to  a  war  upon  property,  or 


Gable  Galfe.  75 

the  owners  of  property.  Property 
is  the  fruit  of  labor  ;  property  is  de 
sirable  ;  is  a  positive  good  to  the 
world.  That  some  should  be  rich 
shows  that  others  may  become  rich, 
and,  hence,  is  just  encouragement 
to  energy  and  enterprise.  Let  not 
him  who  is  houseless  pull  down  the 
house  of  another,  but  let  him  labor 
diligently  and  build  one  for  himself, 
thus  by  example  assuring  that  his 
own  shall  be  safe  from  violence 
when  built." 

• 

LAST    PUBLIC    UTTERANCE     OF     MR. 
LINCOLN,  APRIL  4,   1865. 

"  Mr.  Colfax  : — I  want  you  to 
take  a  message  from  me  to  the 
miners  whom  you  visit.  I  have 
very  large  ideas  of  the  mineral 
wealth  of  our  nation.  I  believe 
it  is  practically  inexhaustible.  It 
abounds  all  over  the  western  coun 
try,  from  the  Rocky  Mountains  to 


76  Bbrabam  ^Lincoln* 

the  Pacific,  and  its  development  has 
scarcely  commenced.  During  the 
war,  when  we  were  adding  a  couple 
of  millions  of  dollars  every  day  to 
our  national  debt,  I  did  not  care 
about  encouraging  the  increase  in 
the  volume  of  our  precious  metals, 
we  had  the  country  to  save  first. 
But  now  that  the  rebellion  is  over 
thrown,  and  we  know  pretty  nearly 
the  amount  of  our  national  debt,  the 
more  gold  and  silver  we  mine,  we 
make  the  payment  of  that  debt  so 
much  the  easier.  Now,  I  am  going 
to  encourage  that  in  every  possible 
way.  We  shall  have  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  disbanded  soldiers,  and 
many  have  feared  that  their  return 
home  in  such  great  numbers  might 
paralyze  industry,  by  furnishing  sud 
denly,  a  greater  supply  of  labor  than 
there  will  be  a  demand  for.  I  am 
going  to  try  to  attract  them  to  the 
hidden  wealth  of  our  mountain 


{Table  Salfc.  77 

ranges,  where  there  is  room  enough 
for  all.  Immigration,  which  even 
the  war  has  not  stopped,  will  land 
upon  our  shores  hundreds  of  thou 
sands  more  from  overcrowded  Eu 
rope.  I  intend  to  point  them  to  the 
gold  and  silver  that  wait  for  them  in 
the  West.  Tell  the  miners  for  me, 
that  I  shall  promote  their  interests  to 
the  best  of  my  ability,  because  their 
prosperity  is  the  prosperity  of  the 
nation  ;  and  we  shall  prove,  in  a 
few  years,  that  we  are  indeed  the 
treasury  of  the  world.'"' 


OF  SLAVERY. 

present  generation  of  Ameri 
cans  can  hardly  obtain  a  correct 
idea  of  the  difficulties  attending  the 
position  of  an  anti-slavery  man  dur 
ing  the  years  immediately  preced 
ing  the  civil  war. 

The  most  moderate  opponents 
of  the  existing  order  of  things  were 
sure  to  be  misunderstood  and  mis 
represented.  The  very  nature  of 
the  institution  itself  compelled  it  to 
be  aggressive.-  Unless  it  could 
continually  grow,  it  must  die,  like  a 
plant  attaining  its  maturity.  The 
unreasoning  bitterness  of  the  po 
litical  conflict  which  was  waged  on 
behalf  of  it  finds  its  best  index  in 
the  fact  of  the  civil  war  itself.  Mr. 


8o  Bbrabam  ^Lincoln. 

Lincoln's  own  aversion  to  slavery 
began  in  his  youth  and  grew  with 
his  growth,  but  he  at  no  time  re 
fused  to  see  and  acknowledge  ever}; 
justice  belonging,  in  law  or  inequity 
to  the  people  of  the  southern  States. 
While  he  was  always  in  advance  of 
the  great  mass  of  his  fellow-citizens, 
and  even  of  his  own  party,  he  was 
never  a  zealot,  never  incapable  of 
appreciating  the  inherited  views 
and  interests  of  his  adversaries. 

In  his  perception,  justice  to  all, 
the  best  good  of  all,  white  men  or 
colored,  demanded  the  preservation 
of  the  national  integrity,  in  one 
government  of  one  country.  To 
this  all  other  considerations  were 
secondary,  for  it  contained  the 
future  as  well  as  the  present,  and 
for  this  every  imaginable  sacrifice 
of  treasure,  of  suffering  and  of  life 
itself,  was  to  be  freely  made.  To 
this  central  thought  and  purpose, 


Si 


therefore,  all  his  utterances  concern 
ing  the  colored  race,  their  bondage 
or  their  emancipation,  can  be 
readily  adjusted. 

• 

SPEECH  AT  SPRINGFIELD,  JUNE,  1857. 

"  In  those  days,  our  Declaration 
of  Independence  was  held  sacred 
by  all,  and  thought  to  include  all  ; 
but  now,  to  aid  in  making  the  bond 
age  of  the  negro  universal  and 
eternal,  it  is  assailed,  sneered  at, 
construed,  hawked  at,  and  torn,  till, 
if  its  framers  could  rise  from  their 
graves,  they  could  not  at  all  recog 
nize  it.  All  the  powers  of  the  earth 
seem  rapidly  combining  against  him. 
Mammon  is  after  him  ;  ambition 
follows  ;  philosophy  follows  ;  and 
the  theology  of  the  day  is  fast  join 
ing  the  cry.  They  have  him  in  his 
prison-house  ;  they  have  searched 
his  person  and  left  no  prying  instru 
ment  with  him.  One  after  another, 


S2  Bbcabam  Ufncotn. 

they  have  closed  the  heavy  iron 
doors  upon  him  ;  and  now  they 
have  him,  as  it  were,  bolted  in,  with 
a  lock  of  a  hundred  keys,  which  can 
never  be  unlocked  without  the  con 
sent  of  every  key  ;  the  keys  in  the 
hands  of  a  hundred  different  men, 
and  they  scattered  to  a  hundred 
different  and  distant  places ;  and 
they  stand  musing  as  to  what  inven 
tion,  in  all  the  dominions  of  mind 
and  matter,  can  be  produced  to 
make  the  impossibility  of  his  escape 
more  complete  than  it  is." 
H 

SPEECH  AT  QUINCY,  ILL.,  OCT.  13,  1858. 

"We  have  in  this  nation  this 
element  of  domestic  slavery.  It  is 
an  absolute  certainty  that  it  is  a  dis 
turbing  element.  It  is  the  opinion 
of  all  the  great  men  who  have  ex 
pressed  an  opinion  upon  it,  that  it 
is  a  dangerous  element.  We  keep 
up  a  controversy  in  regard  to  it. 


83 

That  controversy  necessarily  springs 
from  difference  of  opinion,  and  if 
we  can  learn  exactly — can  reduce  to 
the  lowest  elements — what  that  dif 
ference  of  opinion  is,  we  shall  be 
better  prepared  for  discussing  the 
different  systems  of  policy  that  we 
would  propose  in  regard  to  that  dis 
turbing  element.  I  suggest  that 
the  difference  of  opinion,  reduced 
to  its  lowest  terms,  is  no  other  than 
the  difference  between  the  men  who 
think  slavery  a  wrong  and  those 
who  do  not  think  it  wrong." 
H 

SPEECH  AT  PEORIA,  ILL.,  OCT.  16,  1858. 

"  The  doctrine  of  self-government 
is  right, — absolutely  and  eternally 
right, — but  it  has  no  just  application 
as  here  attempted.  Or  perhaps  I 
should  rather  say  that  whether  it 
has  such  just  application,  depends 
upon  whether  a  negro  is  not,  or  is  a 
man.  If  he  is  not  a  man,  in  that 


84  Bbtabam  Xincoln, 

case  he  who  is  a  man  may  as  a  matter 
of  self-government  do  just  what  he 
pleases  with  him.  But  if  the  negro 
is  a  man,  is  it  riot  to  that  extent  a 
total  destruction  of  self-government 
to  say  that  he  too  shall  not  govern 
himself  ?  When  the  white  man  gov 
erns  himself,  that  is  self-govern 
ment  ;  but  when  he  governs  himself 
and  also  governs  another  man,  that 
is  despotism." 


SPEECH  AT  SPRINGFIELD,  1858. 

"  I  hold  that  notwithstanding  all 
this  there  is  no  reason  in  the  world 
why  the  negro  is  not  entitled  to  all 
the  natural  rights  enumerated  in  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  the 
right  to  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit 
of  happiness.  I  hold  that  he  is  as 
much  entitled  to  these  as  the  white 
man.  I  agree  with  Judge  Douglas 
that  he  is  not  my  equal,  in  many 


Sable  Galfc.  85 

respects, — certainly  not  in  color, 
perhaps  not  in  moral  or  intellectual 
endowment ;  but  in  the  right  to  eat 
the  bread  without  the  leave  of  any 
body  else,  which  his  own  hand  earns, 
he  is  my  equal,  and  the  equal  of 
Judge  Douglas,  and  the  equal  of 
every  living  man." 


SPEECH,  1858. 

"  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  when 
it  (slavery)  takes  a  turn  toward  ulti 
mate  extinction,  it  will  be  in  a  day, 
nor  in  a  year,  nor  in  two  years.  I 
do  not  suppose  that  in  the  most 
peaceful  way  ultimate  extinction 
would  occur  in  less  than  a  hundred 
years  at  least  ;  but  that  it  will  occur 
in  the  best  way  for  both  races,  in 
God's  own  good  time,  I  have  no 
doubt." 

583 


86  Bbrabam  ^Lincoln. 

REPLY  TO  AN  ADDRESS  OF  COLORED 

MEN  AT  THE  EXECUTIVE 

MANSION,  AUG.  14,  1862. 

"  It  is  a  cheering  thought,  through 
out  life,  that  something  can  be  done 
to  ameliorate  the  condition  of  those 
who  have  been  subject  to  the  hard 
usage  of  the  world.  It  is  difficult 
to  make  a  man  miserable  while  he 
feels  he  is  worthy  of  himself  and 
claims  kindred  to  the  Great  God  who 
made  him.  In  the  American  Revo 
lutionary  war,  sacrifices  were  made 
by  men  engaged  in  it,  but  they  were 
cheered  by  the  future.  General 
Washington  himself  endured  greater 
physical  hardships  than  if  he  had 
remained  a  British  subject,  yet  he 
was  a  happy  man,  because  he  was 
benefiting  his  race  ; — in  doing  some 
thing  for  the  children  of  his  neigh 
bors,  having  none  of  his  own." 


87 

LETTER    TO    GOVERNOR    HAHN    OF 

LOUISIANA,    WITH     REFERENCE 

TO  RECONSTRUCTION  IN  1863. 

"  Now,  you  are  about  to  have  a 
convention,  which,  among  other 
things,  will  probably  define  the  elec 
tive  franchise.  I  barely  suggest,  for 
your  private  consideration,  whether 
some  of  the  colored  people  may  not 
be  let  in — as,  for  instance,  the  very 
intelligent,  and  especially  those  who 
fought  gallantly  in  our  ranks.  They 
would  probably  help,  in  some  trying 
time  to  come,  to  keep  the  jewel  of 
liberty  within  the  family  of  free 
dom.'* 


OF    THE     EMANCIPATION     PROCLAMA 
TION—REMARKS  TO  THE  CHICAGO 
DEPUTATION,  SEPT.  13,  1862. 

"  I  have  not  decided  against  a 
proclamation  of  liberty  to  the  slaves, 
but  hold  the  matter  under  advise 
ment.  And  I  can  assure  you  that 


:Hbrabam  Lincoln. 

the  subject  is  on  my  mind,  by  day 
and  night,  more  than  any  other. 
Whatever  shall  appear  to  be  God's 
will,  I  will  do  !  " 

B 

CONVERSATIONALLY,  SEPT.,  1864. 

"  There's  just  one  thing  I  want 
to  say.  The  war  is  nearly  over. 
Just  when  it  will  end,  I  can't  say, 
but  it  won't  be  a  great  while.  Then 
the  government  forces  must  be  with 
drawn  from  all  the  Southern  States. 
Sooner  or  later,  we  must  take  them 
all  away.  Now,  what  I  want  you  to 
do  is  this  :  do  all  you  can,  in  any 
and  every  way  you  can,  to  get  the 
ballot  into  the  hands  of  the  freed- 
men  !  We  must  make  voters  of 
them  before  we  take  away  the 
troops.  The  ballot  will  be  their 
only  protection  after  the  bayonet  is 
gone,  and  they  will  be  sure  to  need 
all  they  can  get.  I  can  see  just  how 
it  will  be. — Will  you  ?" 


OF  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

JVJR.  LINCOLN  was,  under  the 
Constitution,  the  Commander- 
in-Chief  of  the  Army  and  Navy  of 
the  United  States,  yet  neither  the 
one  nor  the  other  was  in  existence 
on  the  day  when  he  took  the  oath 
of  office  and  assumed  the  responsi 
bility  of  defending  the  life  of  the 
Republic.  Almost  his  first  duty 
was  to  call,  out  and  arm  soldiers 
and  to  obtain  and  equip  vessels  of 
war.  No  other  president,  excepting 
Washington,  was  ever  compelled  to 
be  actually  the  general-in-chief, 
supervising,  if  need  should  be,  all 
subordinate  generals.  His  commu 
nications  with  commanders  in  the 
field  were  more  complete  than  was 


90  Bbrabam  Xtncoln. 

at  any  time  possible  before  the 
creation  of  the  military  telegraph- 
system.  They  were,  for  altogether 
the  greater  part,  conducted  through 
the  War  Office,  including,  with  the 
Secretary  of  War,  the  successive 
ranking  generals,  from  Scott  to 
Grant.  There  were  a  few  written 
epistles,  mere  epistolary  dispatches, 
perpetual  inquiry,  counsel,  encour 
agement,  but  now  that  the  occasions 
for  them  and  the  communications 
themselves  have  been  subjected  to 
careful  study  and  analysis,  the 
positions  taken  and  the  advice  or 
directions  given  by  the  president 
are  wonderfully  vindicated.  All 
that  his  contemporary  critics  de 
scribed  as  his  "  interference  with 
military  affairs,"  may  be  better 
summed  up  in  the  language  of 
General  Grant,  May  i,  1864.  "  From 
my  first  entrance  into  the  volunteer 
service  of  the  country  to  the  pres- 


(Table  Galfc.  91 

ent  day,  I  have  never  had  cause  of 
complaint  ....  I  have  been  aston 
ished  at  the  readiness  with  which 
everything  asked  for  has  been 
yielded,  without  even  an  explana 
tion  being  asked."  Apart  from 
direct  communications  with  military 
commanders,  relating  to  campaign 
operations,  there  were  many  things 
said  of  a  more  general  nature, 
conversationally  and  publicly,  and 
many  things  written,  which  exhibit 
the  character  of  the  man,  and  sug 
gest  his  methods  of  dealing  with 
his  multiform  and  trying  circum 
stances. 

H 

SPEECH  AT  CINCINNATI,  O.,  SEPT.,  1859. 

"  The  good  old  maxims  of  the 
Bible  are  applicable,  and  truly  ap 
plicable,  to  human  affairs,  and  in 
this,  as  in  other  things,  we  may  say 
here  that  he  who  is  not  for  us  is 
against  us  ;  he  who  gathereth  not 
with  us  scattereth." 


92  Bbrabam  OLfncotn. 

REPLY  TO  ONE  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF 
THE  PEACE  CONGRESS,  WASH 
INGTON,  FEB.  24,  1861. 

"  In  a  choice  of  evils,  war  may 
not  always  be  the  worst.  Still,  I 
would  do  all  in.  my  power  to  avert 
it,  except  to  neglect  a  Constitu 
tional  duty." 

H 

INAUGURAL  ADDRESS,  MARCH  4,  1861. 

44  Why  should  there  not  be  a 
patient  confidence  in  the  ultimate 
justice  of  the  people  ?  Is  there 
any  better,  or  equal,  hope  in  the 
world  ?  In  our  present  differences, 
is  either  party  without  faith  of 
being  in  the  right  ? " 
x 

CONVERSATIONAL,  1861. 

"  This  is  our  own  affair.  It  is  a 
family  quarrel  with  which  foreign 
nations  have  nothing  to  do,  and 
they  must  let  it  alone." 


Hable  Halfc.  93 

CONVERSATION,  NOV.  15,  1861. 

"  My  own  impression  is  .... 
that  this  Government  possesses 
both  the  authority  and  the  power 
to  maintain  its  own  integrity.  That, 
however,  is  not  the  ugly  point  of 
this  matter.  The  ugly  point  is  the 
necessity  of  keeping  the  Govern 
ment  together  by  force,  as  ours 
should  be  a  Government  of  frater 
nity." 

• 

FIRST  ANNUAL  MESSAGE,  DEC.  3,  1862. 

"  A  nation  which  endures  factious 
domestic  divisions,  is  exposed  to 
disrespect  abroad  ;  and  one  party, 
if  not  both,  is  sure,  sooner  or  later, 
to  invoke  foreign  intervention. 
Nations  thus  tempted  to  interfere 
are  not  always  able  to  resist  the 
councils  of  seeming  expediency  and 
ungenerous  ambition,  although 
measures  adopted  under  such  in 
fluences  seldom  fail  to  be  unfortu- 


94  Bbrabam  ^Lincoln, 

nate  and  injurious  to  those  adopting 
them." 


CONVERSATIONAL. 

"Gold  is  good,  in  its  place  ;  but 
living,  brave  and  patriotic  men  are 
better  than  gold." 


LETTER      TO    HON.      W.     H.     SEWARD, 
JUNE  28,  1862. 

"  I  expect  to  continue  this  con 
test  until  successful,  or  till  I  die,  or 
am  conquered,  or  my  term  expires, 
or  Congress  or  the  country  forsakes 
me  ;  and  I  would  publicly  appeal  to 
the  country  for  this  new  force 
(volunteers  for  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac),  were  it  not  that  I  fear  a 
general  panic  and  stampede  would 
follow,  so  hard  is  it  to  have  a  thing 
understood  as  it  really  is." 


Gable  aalfcv  95 

CONVERSATION,  IN  THE  MASON*     - 
SLIDELL  CASE,  DECIDING 
TO  SURRENDER  THEM. 

"We  fought  Great  Britain  for 
doing  just  what  Captain  Wilkes  has 
done.  If  Great  Britain  protests 
against  this  act  and  demands  their 
release,  we  must  adhere  to  our  prin 
ciples  of  1812.  We  must  give  up 
these  prisoners. 

"  One  war  at  a  time  !  " 
H 

LETTER  TO  CUTHBERT    BULLITT, 
NEW  ORLEANS,  JULY  28,    1862. 

Concerning  men  in  Louisiana,  who 
refused  to  take  sides  for  or  against 
the  Union,  yet  demanded  the  pro 
tection  of  the  government  : 

"They  are  to  touch  neither  a 
sail  nor  a  pump-line,  merely  passen 
gers,  ('dead  heads'  at  that),  be 
carried  snug  and  dry  through  the 
storm  and  safely  landed,  right  side 
up.  Nay,  more, — even  a  mutineer 
is  to  go  untouched,  lest  these  sacred 


96  Bbtabam  Xtncolm 

passengers  receive  an  accidental 
wound. — What  would  you  do,  in  my 
position  ?  Would  you  drop  the 
war,  where  it  is  ?  Or  would  you 
prosecute  it,  in  future,  with  elder- 
stalk  squirts,  charged  with  rose- 
water  ? " 


SPEECH  AT  SERENADE  IN  HONOR  OF 
THE  EMANCIPATION  PROCLAMA 
TION,  SEPTEMBER  24,  1862. 

"  In  my  position  I  am  environed 
with  difficulties.  Yet  they  are 
scarcely  so  great  as  the  difficulties 
of  those  who,  upon  the  battle-field, 
are  endeavoring  to  purchase  with 
their  blood  and  their  lives  the 
future  happiness  and  prosperity  of 
the  country.1' 

• 

LETTER  TO  THOMAS  H.  CLAY,  CINCIN 
NATI,  OHIO,  OCT.  8,  1862. 

"  I  sincerely  wish  war  was  an 
easier  and  pleasanter  business  than 


Eable  aalfc.  97 

it  is,  but  it  does  not  admit  of  holi 
days." 

• 

OF  THE  SABBATH  IN  THE  ARMY. 
PROCLAMATION,  NOV.  16,  1862. 

"  The  importance  for  man  and 
beast  of  the  prescribed  weekly  rest, 
the  sacred  rights  of  Christian 
soldiers  and  sailors,  a  becoming 
deference  to  the  best  sentiments  of 
a  Christian  people,  and  a  due  regard 
for  the  Divine  will,  demand  that 
Sunday  labor  in  the  army  and  navy 
be  reduced  to  the  measure  of  strict 
necessity. 

"  The  discipline  and  character  of 
the  national  forces  should  not  surfer, 
nor  the  cause  they  defend  be  imper 
illed,  by  profanation  of  the  name 
or  the  day  of  the  Most  High." 
• 

TALK  TO  CHICAGO  DELEGATION,  1862. 

"Why,  the  rebel  soldiers  are 
praying  with  a  great  deal  more 


98  Bbrabam  ^Lincoln. 

earnestness,    I  fear,    than  our  own 
troops,  and  expecting  God  to  favor 
their  side  ;  for  one  of  our  soldiers, 
who  had  been  taken  prisoner,  told 
Senator  Wilson,  a  few    days  since, 
that  he  met  nothing  so  discouraging 
I  j       as  the  evident  sincerity  of  those  he 
was  among  in  their  prayers." 
H 

TO  AN  ENTHUSIASTIC  WESTERN 

MINISTER,  WHO    ANNOUNCED  TO  HIM 

A  "MESSAGE   FROM  THE  LORD" 

CONCERNING  EMANCIPATION. 

SEPT.,  1862. 

"  If  it  is,  as  you  say,  a  message 
from  your  Divine  Master,  is  it  not 
odd  that  the  only  channel  He  could 
/  send  it  by  was  that  round-about 
route  by  that  awfully  wicked  city 
of  Chicago  ? " 

B 

LETTER    TO    CARL     SCHURZ,    NOV.    24. 
1862. 

"  I  wish  to  disparage  no  one,  cer- 


Cable  Qalfc.  99 

tainly   not   those    who   sympathize 

with  me,  but  I    must    say    I   need 

success  more  than  I  need  sympathy. 

H 

SECOND  ANNUAL  MESSAGE,  DEC.  i,  1862. 

"  Our  struggle  has  been,  of  course, 
contemplated  by  foreign  nations 
with  reference  less  to  its  own  merits 
than  to  its  supposed  and  often 
exaggerated  effects  and  conse 
quences  resulting  to  those  nations 
themselves.  Nevertheless,  com 
plaint  on  the  part  of  this  govern 
ment,  even  if  it  were  just,  would 
certainly  be  unwise." 
• 

SECOND    ANNUAL     MESSAGE   TO     CON 
GRESS,    DEC.  i,  1862. 

"  The  dogmas  of  the  quiet  past 
are  inadequate  to  the  stormy  pres 
ent.  The  occasion  is  piled  high 
with  difficulty  and  we  must  rise 
with  the  occasion.  As  our  case  is 
new,  so  we  must  think  anew  and 


ioo          Bbrabam  ^Lincoln. 

act  anew.  We  must  disenthrall 
ourselves,  and  then  shall  we  save 
our  country." 

• 

TO  A  WOMAN  PREACHER  OF 
THE  SOCIETY  OF  PROGRESSIVE 
FRIENDS,    WHO    DELIVERED  HER 
AUTHORITATIVE    "  TESTIMONY,"  COM 
MANDING   HIM,  IN   THE  NAME  OF 
THE  LORD,  TO  ABOLISH  SLAV 
ERY  AND  ADVANCE  THE 
CAUSE  OF  WOMEN'S 
RIGHTS,  1862. 

"  I  have  neither  time  nor  disposi 
tion  to  enter  into  discussion  with 
the  Friend,  and  end  this  occasion 
by  suggesting  for  her  consideration 
the  question  whether,  if  it  be  true 
that  the  Lord  has  appointed  me  to 
do  the  work  she  has  indicated, — it  is 
not  probable  that  He  would  have 
communicated  knowledge  of  the 
fact  to  me  as  well  as  to  her." 


liable  Salt*.  «« 

j-ETTER  TO  GEN.  JOSEPH  HOOKER, 
JAN.  26,  1863. 

"  And  now,  beware  of  rashness, — 
beware     of     rashness  ! — but,    with 
energy  and  sleepless   vigilance,  go 
forward  and  give  us  victories !  " 
81 

LETTER  TO  THE  WORKINGMEN  OF 
MANCHESTER,  ENG.,  FEB.  9,  1863. 

"  A  fair  examination  of  history 
has  seemed  to  authorize  a  belief 
that  the  past  action  and  influence 
of  the  United  States  were  generally 
regarded  as  having  been  beneficial 
toward  mankind.  I  have  therefore 
reckoned  on  the  forbearance  of 
nations.'* 

• 

OPINION  OF  THE  DRAFT  ACT,  1863. 

"  The  principle  of  the  draft, 
which  simply  is  involuntary  or  en 
forced  service,  is  not  new.  It  has 
been  practised  in  all  ages  of  the 
world.  It  was  well  known  to  the 


ib2          Bbtabam  lincoltu 

framers  of  our  Constitution  as  one 
of  the  modes  of  raising  armies,  at 
the  time  they  placed  in  that  instru 
ment  the  provision  that  '  the  Con 
gress  shall  have  power  to  raise,  and 
support  armies.'  It  had  been  used 
just  before,  in  establishing  our  in 
dependence,  and  it  was  also  used, 
under  the  Constitution,  in  1812. 
Wherein  is  the  peculiar  hardship 
now  ?  Shall  we  shrink  from  the 
necessary  means  to  maintain  our 
free  government,  which  our  grand 
fathers  employed  to  establish  it  and 
our  fathers  have  already  employed 
once  to  maintain  it  ?  Are  we  de 
generate  ?  Has  the  manhood  of 
our  race  run  out?" 


LETTER  TO  GENERAL    HOOKER,  JUNE 
5,  1863. 

"  In  one  word,  I  would  not  take 
any    risk  of   being  entangled  upon 


Gable  Galfc.  103 

the  river,  like  an  ox  jumped  half 
over  a  fence  and  liable  to  be  torn 
by  dogs  front  and  rear,  without  a 
fair  chance  to  gore  one  way  or  kick 
the  other." 


TELEGRAM  TO  GENERAL  HOOKER, 
JUNE  14,  1863. 

"  If  the  head  of  Lee's  army  is  at 
Martinsburg  and  the  tail  of  it  on 
the  plank  road  between  Fredericks- 
burg  and  Chancellorsville,  the  ani 
mal  must  be  slim  somewhere. 
Could  you  not  break  him  ?" 


IN  RESPONSE  TO  A  SERENADE,  JULY, 

1863. 

"  I  would  like  to  speak  in  terms 
of  praise  due  to  the  many  brave 
officers  and  soldiers  who  have 
fought  in  the  cause  of  the  Union 
and  liberties  of  their  country,  from 


104          Bbrabam  Xfncoln, 

the  beginning  of  the  war.  These 
are  trying  occasions,  not  only  in 
success  but  for  the  want  of  success. 
I  dislike  to  mention  the  name  of 
one  single  officer,  lest  I  might  do 
wrong  to  those  I  might  forget." 


IN    CONVERSATION    WITH   HON.   W.  D. 
KELLEY,  1863. 

"  I  am  not  so  sure  that  we  are 
not  in  search  of  a  housekeeper  (as 
general  of  the  army).  I  tell  you, 
Kelley,  the  successful  management 
of  an  army  requires  a  good  deal  of 
faithful  housekeeping.  More  can 
be  got  out  of  well  fed  and  well 
cared  for  men  and  animals  than 
can  be  got  out  of  those  who  are 
required  to  make  long  marches 
on  empty  stomachs,  and  whose 
strength  and  cheerfulness  are  im 
paired  by  the  failure  to  distribute 
proper  rations  at  proper  seasons." 


liable  ^alft.  105 

REPLY  TO  FAULT-FINDERS  AT 
EXECUTIVE  MANSION. 

"  Gentlemen,  suppose  all  the  prop 
erty  you  were  worth  was  in  gold, 
and  you  had  put  it  in  the  hands  of 
Blondin  to  carry  across  the  Niagara 
river  on  a  rope,  would  you  shake 
the  cable,  or  keep  shouting  out  to 
him  : — *  Blondin,  stand  up  a  little 
straighter — Blondin,  stoop  a  little 
more — go  a  little  faster,  lean  a  little 
more  to  the  north — lean  a  little 
more  to  the  south'? — No,  you  would 
hold  your  breath  as  well  as  your 
tongue,  and  keep  your  hands  off 
until  he  was  safe  over.  The  Gov 
ernment  are  carrying  an  immense 
weight.  Untold  treasures  are  in 
their  hands.  They  are  doing  the 
best  they  can.  Don't  badger  them. 
Keep  silence,  and  we'll  get  you  safe 
across." 


io6          Hbrabam  ^Lincoln. 

LETTER    TO    JAMES    C.    CONKLING, 
SPRINGFIELD,  ILL.,  AUG.  26,  1863. 

"  Peace  does  not  appear  so  distant 
as  it  did.  I  hope  it  will  come  soon, 
and  come  to  stay,  and  so  come  as  to 
be  worth  the  keeping  in  all  future 
time.  It  will  then  have  been  proved 
that  among  freemen  there  can  be 
no  successful  appeal  from  the  ballot 
to  the  bullet,  and  that  they  who 
take  such  appeal  are  sure  to  lose 
their  case  and  pay  the  cost." 


"  SOME  KINDS    OF    POWDER  CAN'T  BE 
BURNT  BUT  ONCE." 

"  I  do  the  very  best  I  know  how, 
the  very  best  I  can  ;  and  I  mean  to 
keep  doing  so  until  the  end.  If  the 
end  brings  me  out  all  right,  what  is 
said  against  me  won't  amount  to 
anything.  If  the  end  brings  me  out 
wrong,  ten  angels  swearing  I  was 
right  would  make  no  difference. " 


Gable  Galft.  107 


ADDRESS  AT  THE  FAIR  HELD  AT  THE 

PATENT  OFFICE,    WASHINGTON, 

MARCH  16,  1864. 

"  This  extraordinary  war  in  which 
we  are  engaged  falls  heavily  upon 
all  classes  of  people,  but  the  most 
heavily  upon  the  soldiers.  For 
it  has  been  said,  all  that  a  man 
hath  will  he  give  for  his  life  ;  and 
while  all  contribute  of  their  sub 
stance,  the  soldier  puts  his  life  at 
stake,  and  often  yields  it  up  in  his 
country's  cause.  The  highest  merit, 
then,  is  due  to  the  soldier.  In  this 
extraordinary  war,  extraordinary 
developments  have  manifested 
themselves,  such  as  have  not  been 
seen  in  former  wars ;  and  among 
these  manifestations  nothing  has 
been  more  remarkable  than  these 
fairs  for  the  relief  of  suffering  sol 
diers  and  their  families.  And  the 
chief  agents  in  these  fairs  are,  the 


ros          Bbrabam  Htncolru 

women  of  America.  I  am  not 
accustomed  to  the  language  of  eu 
logy  ;  I  have  never  studied  the 
art  of  paying  compliments  to 
women  ;  but  I  must  say,  that  if  all 
that  has  been  said  by  orators  and 
poets  since  the  creation  of  the  world 
in  praise  of  women  were  applied  to 
the  women  of  America,  it  would 
not  do  them  justice  for  their  con 
duct  during  the  war.  I  will  close  by 
saying,  God  bless  the  women  of 
America  !" 


FOURTH    ANNUAL  MESSAGE  TO  CON 
GRESS,  DEC.  6,  1864. 

"  For  myself,  I  have  no  doubt  of 
the  power  and  duty  of  the  executive, 
under  the  law  of  nations,  to  exclude 
enemies  of  the  human  race  from  an 
asylum  in  the  United  States." 


Gable  Galfc.  109 

LETTER     TO      F.     A.     CONKLING      AND 

OTHERS,  NEW  YORK,  JUNE  3,  1864, 

REPLYING  TO  INVITATION  TO 

ATTEND  A  MASS  MEETING 

IN  HONOR  OF  GENERAL 

GRANT. 

"  While  the  magnitude  and  diffi 
culty  of  the  task  before  him  (Gen. 
Grant)  do  not  prove  less  than  1 
expected,  he  and  his  brave  soldiers 
are  now  in  the  midst  of  their  great 
trial,  and  I  trust  at  your  meeting 
you  will  so  shape  your  words  that 
they  may  turn  to  men  and  guns 
moving  to  his  and  their  support." 
• 

SPEECH  AT  PHILADELPHIA, 
JUNE  16,  1864, 

"  War,  at  the  best,  is  terrible,  and 
this  war  of  ours,  in  its  magnitude 
and  in  its  duration,  is  one  of  the 
most  terrible.  It  has  deranged 
business,  totally  in  many  localities, 
and  partially  in  all  localities.  It 
has  destroyed  property  and  ruined 


i  io          Bbrabam  ^Lincoln. 

homes  ;  it  has  produced  a  national 
debt  and  taxation  unprecedented, 
at  least  in  this  country  ;  it  has 
carried  mourning  to  almost  every 
home,  until  it  can  almost  be  said  that 
'  the  heavens  are  hung  in  black.'" 

m 

TO    LADIES    AT    A    PRESENTATION    OF 

LEAVES  FROM  THE  GETTYSBURG 

BATTLE-FIELD,  JAN.  24,  1865. 

"  I  wish  you  to  read,  if  you  have 
not  already  done  so,  the  eloquent 
and  truthful  words  which  he 
(Edward  Everett)  then  spoke  of  the 
women  of  America.  Truly,  the 
services  they  have  rendered  to  the 
defenders  of  our  country  in  this  per 
ilous  time,  and  are  yet  rendering, 
can  never  be  estimated  as  they 
ought  to  be." 

m 

INAUGURAL  ADDRESS,  MARCH  5,  i«65. 

"  With   malice  toward  none;  with 
j    J      charity  for  all,  with    firmness  in  the 


right,  as  God  gives  us  to  see  the 
right,  let  us  strive  to  finish  the  work 
we  are  in,  to  bind  up  the  nation's 
wounds  ;  to  care  for  him  who  shall 
have  borne  the  battle,  and  for  his 
widow  and  orphans  ;  to  do  all  which 
may  achieve  and  cherish  a  just  and 
lasting  peace  among  ourselves  and 
with  all  nations." 


OF  ASSASSINATION. 

'THERE  were  threats  of  personal 
violence  openly  made  very  soon 
after  Mr.  Lincoln's  election.  Other 
and  even  deadlier  menaces  came  to 
him  secretly,  or  were  privately 
made  known  to  his  personal  friends. 
From  the  day  of  his  arrival  in 
Washington,  his  mails  teemed  with 
letters  of  a  threatening  character, 
but  he  invariably  refused  to  see 
them  or  be  informed  of  their  con 
tents.  He  would  not  permit  him 
self  to  know  or  to  think  that  his 
service  to  his  country  was  per 
formed  in  the  constant  presence 
of  personal  peril.  Other  people 
thought  of  it,  however,  and  tried  to 
guard  him,  but  the  idea  of  assassina- 


"4          Bbrabam  ^Lincoln. 

tion  had  probably  passed  out  of  the 
minds  of  all  men  but  the  actual 
assassins  themselves  when  at  last 
the  murderous  blow  so  long  with 
held  was  given. 


COOPER  INSTITUTE  SPEECH,  FEB,  27, 
1860. 

"  That  affair,  (John  Brown's  raid) 
in  its  philosophy  corresponds  with 
many  attempts,  related  in  history, 
at  the  assassination  of  kings  and 
emperors.  An  enthusiast  broods 
over  the  oppression  of  a  people,  till 
he  fancies  himself  commissioned  by 
Heaven  to  liberate  them.  He  ven 
tures  the  attempt,  which  results  in 
little  more  than  his  own  execution." 


TO  HANNAH  ARMSTRONG,  CONVERSA 
TION,  FEB.,  1861. 

"  Hannah,    if   they   do  kill  me,  I 
shall  never  die  another  death/' 


{Table 


TO  HIS  STEPMOTHER,  FEBRUARY,  1861, 

BEFORE  SETTING  OUT  FOR  "WASH 

INGTON. 

•No,  mamma,  they  will  never  do 
that  (assassination).  Trust  in  the 
Lord  and  all  will  be  well.  We  will 
see  each  other  again." 

m 

CONVERSATIONALLY,    TO  MAJOR 

CHARLES  G.  HALPIN,  IN 

WASHINGTON. 

"  If  there  were  such  a  plot  and 
they  wanted  to  get  at  me,  no  vigi 
lance  could  keep  them  out.  We  are 
so  mixed  up  in  our  affairs  that  no 
matter  what  the  system  established 
—  a  conspiracy  to  assassinate,  if 
such  there  were,  could  easily  obtain 
a  pass  to  see  me,  for  one  or  more  of 
its  instruments.  .  .  As  to  the 
crazy  folks,  Major,  why,  I  must 
only  take  my  chances." 
03 

CONVERSATION  WITH  GEN.  B.  F.  BUT 
LER,  1863. 

"  O,  assassination  of  public  officers 
is  not  an  American  crime." 


OF  TEMPERANCE. 

'PHE  rude  backwoodsmen  and 
prairie  settlers  among  whom  Mr. 
Lincoln's  boyhood  and  youth  were 
passed,  were  generally  accustomed 
to  the  use  of  intoxicating  liquors. 
It  was  a  striking  exhibition  of  moral 
courage  and  independence  of  char 
acter,  therefore,  that  while  yet  a  boy 
he  took  vigorous  action  against  the 
prevailing  evil.  He  taught  himself 
the  art  of  writing  and  composition, 
and  one  of  the  first  uses  he  made  of 
it  was  to  prepare  an  argument  for 
temperance  which  was  printed,  with 
hearty  approval,  by  an  Indiana  news 
paper.  During  his  entire  profes 
sional  career,  he  maintained  an 


us          Bbrabam  ^Lincoln. 

unobtrusive  but  unyielding  oppo 
sition  to  the  social  use  of  stimulants, 
and  the  silent  but  powerful  influence 
of  his  example  was  continued  in  the 
Executive  Mansion.  If  he  did  not 
do  more  or  say  more  in  this,  direc 
tion,  it  may  have  been  because"  his 
hands  were  filled  with  a  work  ..es 
pecially  belonging  to  him,  and  this 
could  safely" be  left  to  the. hands  of 
Others.  .. 

.« 

TO    THE    COMMITTEE    APPOINTED     BY 
THE    REPUBLICAN   NATIONAL  CON 
VENTION,    AT    CHICAGO,  MAY  16, 
i860,  TO  FORMALLY  ANNOUNCE 
TO  MR.  LINCOLN  HIS  NOMI 
NATION.  ON  RECEIVING 
THEM,      AT     SPRING 
FIELD  ONLY  GLAS 
SES  OF  WATER 
WERE       OF 
FERED. 

"Gentlemen,  we  must  pledge  our 
mutual  healths  in  the  most  healthy 


Gable  Galfc.  119 

beverage  which  God  has  given  to 
man.  It  is  the  only  beverage  which 
I  have  ever  used,  or  allowed  in  my 
family,  and  I  cannot  conscientiously 
depart  from  it  on  the  present  occa 
sion.  It  is  Dure  Adam's  ale,  from 
the  spring." 


TO    THE     OFFICERS    AND     GUESTS   ON 
BOARD  OF  THE  MONITOR,  INSPECT 
ING    HER    AND     RECEIVING     AC 
COUNTS  OF  THE  FIGHT  WITH 
THE      MERRIMAC       A      FEW 
WEEKS  AFTER    THE    BAT 
TLE.     THERE     WAS    NO 
LIQUOR         OFFERED 
WITH       THE      RE 
FRESHMENTS. 

"  Some  uncharitable  people  say 
that  old  Bourbon  is  an  indispensa 
ble  element  in  the  fighting  qualities 
of  some  of  our  generals  in  the  field, 
but,  Captain,  after  the  account  that 
we  have  heard  to-day,  no  one  will 


120          Bbrabam  Xtncoln* 

say    that    any    Dutch    courage    is 
needed  on  board  the  Monitor!' 
H 

CONVERSATION,  HON.  LAWRENCE 
WELDON,  OF  ILLINOIS,  1854. 

"  I  do  not,  in  theory,  but  I  do,  in 
fact,  belong  to  the  temperance  so 
ciety  ;  in  this,  to  wit,  that  I  do  not 
drink  anything,  and  have  r  )t  done 
so  for  a  very  many  years." 


OF   DIVINE    PROVI 
DENCE. 

S  time  went  on,  in  the  daily  en 
durance  of  severe  trials  and  the 
faithful  performance  of  great  duties, 
there  came  to  Mr.  Lincoln  a  dis 
tinctly  declared  development  of  re 
ligious  character.  He  had  been 
reverent,  from  the  first,  and  even 
prayerful,  but,  as  the  end  drew 
nearer,  through  all  the  terrible 
days  of  1864,  and  the  swift  weeks 
given  him  in  1865,  his  public  and 
private  utterances  of  belief  and 
trust  in  God  became  more  frequent 
aud  more  fervent.  If  in  his  earlier 
history,  before  any  of  these  fiery 
experiences  came,  he  had  been  open 


i22          Bbrabam  Xincoln. 

to  the  charge  of  carelessness  or 
semi-skepticism,  it  was  not  so  now, 
and  no  other  American  statesman 
has  left  behind  him  so  full  and  vig 
orous  a  confession  of  faith. 

m 

FAREWELL  SPEECH  AT   SPRINGFIELD 

ILLS.,  FEB.  ii,  1861,  SETTING   OUT 

FOR  WASHINGTON. 

"  Unless  the  great  God,  who 
assisted  him,  (Washington)  shall  be 
with  me  and  aid  me,  I  must  fail. 
If  the  same  omniscient  mind  and 
almighty  arm  that  directed  and  pro 
tected  him  shall  guide  and  support 
me,  I  shall  not  fail — I  shall  succeed. 
Let  us  all  pray  that  the  God  of 
our  fathers  may  not  forsake  us 
now." 

SB 

TO    NEWTON     BATEMAN,     CONVERSA 
TIONALLY,  OCT.,  1860. 

"  I  know  there  is  a  God  and  that 
fie  hates  injustice  and  slavery.  I 


ttable  Galfc.  123 

see  the  storm  coming  and  i  know 
that  His  hand  is  in  it.  If  he  has  a 
place  and  work  for  me — and  1 
think  he  has — I  believe  I  am  ready. 
I  am  nothing,  but  truth  is  every 
thing.  I  know  I  am  right  because 
I  know  that  liberty  is  right,  for 
Christ  teaches  it,  and  Christ  is 
God." 

H 

TO  THE  QUAKERS  OF  IOWA,  JAN.  5,  1862. 

"  It  is  most  cheering  and  encour 
aging  for  me  to  know  that  in  the 
efforts  I  have  made,  and  am  mak 
ing,  for  the  restoration  of  a  right 
eous  peace  to  our  country,  I  am 
upheld  and  sustained  by  the  good 
wishes  and  prayers  of  God's  people. 
No  one  is  more  deeply  than  myself 
aware  that  without  His  favor,  our 
highest  wisdom  is  but  as  foolishness, 
and  that  our  most  strenuous  efforts 
would  avail  nothing  in  the  shadow 
of  His  displeasure.  It  seems  to  me 


124          Bbrabam  ^Lincoln, 

that  if  there  be  one  subject  upon 
which  all  good  men  may  unitedly 
agree,  it  is  in  imploring  the  gra 
cious  favor  of  the  God  of  Nations 
upon  the  struggle  our  people  are 
making  for  the  preservation  of 
their  precious  birthright  of  civil 
and  religious  liberty." 
H 

REPLY  TO    COMMITTEE    OF   THE    GEN 
ERAL  ASSEMBLY  OF  THE  NEW 
SCHOOL  PRESBYTERIANS, 
MAY,  1863. 

"It  has  been  my  happiness  to 
receive  testimonies  of  a  similar 
nature  from,  I  believe,  all  denom 
inations  of  Christians.  .  .  This  to 
me  is  most  gratifying,  because 
from  the  beginning  I  saw  that  the 
issues  of  our  great  struggle  de 
pended  on  the  Divine  interposition 
and  favor.  .  .  As  a  pilot,  I  have 
used  my  best  exertions  to  keep 
afloat  our  Ship  of  State,  and  shall 
be  glad  to  resign  my  trust  at  the 


Gable  ftalfc.  125 

appointed  time  to  another  pilot 
more  skilful  and  successful  than  I 
may  prove.  In  every  case  and  at 
all  hazards,  the  Government  must 
be  perpetuated.  Relying  as  I  da 
on  the  Almighty  power,  and  encour 
aged  as  I  am  by  these  resolutions 
which  you  have  just  read,  with  the 
support  I  receive  from  Christian 
men,  I  shall  not  hesitate  to  use  all 
means  at  my  control  to  secure  the 
termination  of  the  rebellion,  and 
will  hope  for  success." 
H 

TO     A    DEPUTATION    FROM     ALL    THE 

RELIGIOUS    DENOMINATIONS  OF 

CHICAGO,  SEPT.  13,  1862. 

"  I  hope  it  will  not  be  irreverent 
for  me  to  say  that  if  it  is  probable 
that  God  would  reveal  His  will  to 
others,  on  a  point  so  connected 
with  my  duty,  it  might  be  supposed 
He  would  reveal  it  directly  to  me  ; 
for,  unless  I  am  more  deceived  in 


126          Bbrabam  Xtncoln. 

myself  than  I  often  am,  it  is  my 
earnest  desire  to  know  the  will  of 
Providence  in  this  matter,  and  if  I 
can  learn  what  it  is,  I  will  do  it." 


LETTER    TO    REV.  ALEXANDER    REED, 
FEB.  22,  1863. 

"  Whatever  shall  be,  sincerely 
and  in  God's  name,  devised  for  the 
good  of  the  soldiers  and  seamen  in 
their  hard  spheres  of  duty,  can 
scarcely  fail  to  be  blessed  ;  and 
whatever  shall  tend  to  turn  our 
thoughts  from  the  unreasoning  and 
uncharitable  passions,  prejudices 
and  jealousies  incident  to  a  great 
national  trouble  such  as  ours,  and 
to  fix  them  on  the  vast  and  long- 
enduring  consequences,  for  weal 
or  woe,  which  are  to  result  from 
the  struggle,  and  especially  to 
strengthen  our  reliance  on  the 
Supreme  Being  for  the  final  triumph 


Sable  Salfc.  127 

of   the   right,    can  not  but  be  well 
for  us  all." 

• 

TELEGRAPHIC      ANNOUNCEMENT      OF 

THE  VICTORY  AT  GETTYSBURG, 

JULY  4,  1863. 

"  The  President  announces  to  the 
country  that  news  from  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac,  up  to  10  p.  M.  of 
the  3d,  is  such  as  to  cover  that  army 
with  the  highest  honor  ;  to  promise 
a  success  to  the  cause  of  the  Union  ; 
and  to  claim  the  condolence  of  all 
for  the  many  gallant  fallen  ;  and 
that  for  this  he  especially  desires 
that  on  this  day  He  whose  will,  not 
ours,  should  ever  be  done,  be  every 
where  remembered  with  the  pro- 
foundest  gratitude." 
• 

THANKSGIVING  PROCLAMATION,    OCT. 

3,  1863. 

"  No  human  council  hath  devised, 
nor  hath  any  mortal  hand  worked 


128          Bbrabam  Xincoitu 

out  these  great  things.  They  are 
the  gracious  gifts  of  the  Most  High 
God,  who,  while  dealing  with  us  in 
anger  for  our  sins,  hath  nevertheless 
remembered  mercy. — It  has  seemed 
to  me  fit  and  proper  that  they 
should  be  solemnly,  reverently  ac 
knowledged,  as  with  one  heart  and 
voice,  by  the  whole  American  peo- 
pie." 

m 

TO  A  CLERGYMAN  WHO  SAID  :  "  I  HOPE 
THE  LORD  IS  ON  OUR   SIDE." 

"  I  am  not  at  all  concerned  about 
that,  for  I  know  the  Lord  is  always 
on  the  side  of  the  right.  But  it  is 
my  constant  anxiety  and  prayer 
that  I  and  this  nation  should  be  on 
the  Lord's  side." 

m 

TO  REV.  J.  T.  DURYEA,  OF  NEW  YORK. 

"  If  it  were  not  for  my  firm  be 
lief  in  an  over-ruling  Providence,  it 
would  be  difficult  for  me,  in  the 


Sable  Galfc,  129 

midst  of  such  complications  of 
affairs,  to  keep  my  reason  in  its  seat. 
But  I  am  confident  that  the  Al 
mighty  has  his  plans  and  will  work 
them  out  ;  and  whether  we  see  it 
or  not,  they  will  be  the  wisest  and 
best  for  us." 


LETTER  TO  MR.  A.  G.  HODGES,  FRANK 
FORT,  KY.,  APRIL  4,  1864. 

"  In  telling  this  tale,  I  attempt  no 
compliment  to  my  own  sagacity.  I 
claim  not  to  have  controlled  events, 
but  confess  plainly  that  events  con 
trolled  me.  Now,  at  the  end  of  the 
three  years'  struggle,  the  nation's 
condition  is  not  what  either  party 
or  any  man  devised  or  expected. 

"  God  alone  can  claim  it.  Whither 
it  is  tending  seems  plain.  If  God 
wills  now  the  removal  of  a 'great 
wrong,  and  wills  also  that  we  of 
the  North  as  well  as  you  of  the 


i3°          Bbcabam  ^Lincoln. 

Southj  shall  pay  fairly  for  our  com 
plicity  in  that  wrong,  impartial  his 
tory  will  find  therein  new  causes  to 
attest  and  revere  the  justice  and 
goodness  of  God." 

H 

TO    A    COMMITTEE    OF    THE  GENERAL 

CONFERENCE  OF   THE  METHODIST 

EPISCOPAL  CHURCH,  1864. 

"  It  may  fairly  be  said  that  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  not 
less  devoted  than  the  rest,  is,  by 
its  greater  numbers,  the  most  im 
portant  of  all.  It  is  no  fault  in 
others  that  the  Methodist  Church 
sends  more  soldiers  to  the  field, 
more  nurses  to  the  hospitals,  and 
more  prayers  to  Heaven,  than  any 
other.  God  bless  the  Methodist 
Church  !  Bless  all  the  churches, 
and  blessed  be  God,  who  in  this 
our  great  trial  giveth  us  the 
churches." 


Cable  Galfc.  13* 

TO    MR.  FESSENDEN,  URGING    HIM    TO 
ACCEPT    THE   APPOINTMENT   OF 
SECRETARY    OF    THE    TREAS 
URY  ON  THE  RESIGNATION 
OF  MR.  CHASE, 
1864. 

"  I  do  not  think  you  have  any 
right  to  tell  me  you  will  not  take 
the  place.  I  believe  that  the  sup 
pression  of  the  rebellion  has  been 
decreed  by  a  higher  power  than  any 
represented  by  us,  and  that  the  Al 
mighty  is  using  his  own  means  to 
that  end.  You  are  one  of  them.  It 
is  as  much  your  duty  to  accept  as  it 
is  mine  to  appoint." 
• 

REPLY  TO  MR.  CHITTENDEN,  CONVER 
SATIONALLY,  1864. 

"  That  the  Almighty  does  make 
use  of  human  agencies  and  directly 
intervenes  in  human  affairs,  is  one 
of  the  plainest  statements  of  the 
Bible.  I  have  had  so  many  eviden 
ces  of  His  direction,  so  many  in- 


i32          Bbrabam  ^Lincoln, 

stances  when  I  have  been  controlled 
by  some  other  power  than  my  own 
will,  that  I  cannot  doubt  that  this 
power  comes  from  above.  I  fre 
quently  see  my  way  clear  to  a  de 
cision  when  I  am  conscious  that  I 
have  no  sufficient  facts  upon  which 
to  found  it.  But  I  cannot  recall 
one  instance  in  which  I  have  fol 
lowed  my  own  judgment,  founded 
upon  such  a  decision,  where  the  re 
sults  have  been  unsatisfactory  ; 
whereas,  in  almost  every  instance 
where  I  have  yielded  to  the  views 
of  others,  I  have  had  occasion  to 
regret  it.  I  am  satisfied  that  when 
the  Almighty  wants  me  to  do  or  not 
to  do  a  particular  thing  he  finds  a 
way  of  letting  me  know  it." 
H 

REPLY  TO  A  LADY    FROM  TENNESSEE, 
AUTUMN,  1864. 

"  You  say  your  husband  is  a  re 
ligious    man  ;    tell    him,  when   you 


133 

meet  him,  that  I  say  I  am  not  much 
of  a  judge  of  religion,  but  that,  in 
my  opinion,  the  religion  that  sets 
men  to  fight  and  rebel  against  this 
government,  because,  as  they  think, 
that  government  does  not  suffi 
ciently  help  some  men  to  eat  their 
bread  on  the  sweat  of  other  men's 
faces,  is  not  the  sort  of  religion 
upon  which  people  can  get  to 
Heaven." 

fl 

SPEECH    AT  A    SERENADE,  NOV.  9,  1864, 
ON  OCCASION  OF  HIS  SECOND  ELEC 
TION  TO  THE  PRESIDENCY. 

"I  do  not  impugn  the  motives  of 
any  one  opposed  to  me.  It  is  no 
pleasure  to  me  to  triumph  over  any 
one,  but  I  give  thanks  to  the  Al 
mighty  for  the  evidence  of  the 
people's  resolution  to  stand  by  free 
government  and  the  rights  of  hu- 
manitv." 


134          Bbrabam  3Lincom. 

TO    MEMBERS     OF    THE     GENERAL 

SYNOD  OF  THE  LUTHERAN 

CHURCH,  AUGUST,  1864. 

"In  taking  up  the  sword  thus 
forced  into  our  hands,  this  govern 
ment  appealed  to  the  prayers  of  the 
pious  and  the  good,  and  declared 
that  it  placed  its  whole  dependence 
upon  the  favor  of  God.  I  now 
humbly  and  reverently,  in  your 
presence,  reiterate  the  acknowledg 
ment  of  that  dependence." 

m 

RESPONSE     TO    SERENADE  AT    'WASH 
INGTON,  MAY  13,  1864. 

"  I  will  volunteer  to  say  that  I  am 
very  glad  at  what  has  happened,  but 
there  is  a  great  deal  yet  to  be  done. 
While  we  are  grateful  to  all  the 
brave  men  and  officers  for  the 
events  of  the  past  few  days,  we 
should,  above  all,  be  very  grateful 
to  Almighty  God,  who  gives  us  vie- 
tory." 


Cable  tram*  135 

LETTER  TO  MRS.  ELIZA  P.  GURNEY, 
SEPT.  30,  '864. 

"  The  purposes  of  the    Almighty 
are  perfect  and  must  prevail,  though 
we  erring  mortals  may  fail  to  per 
ceive  them  in  advance.     We  hoped 
for  a  happy  termination  of  this  ter 
rible  war,  long  before  this  ;  but  God 
knows  best  and  has  ruled  otherwise. 
We  shall  yet  acknowledge  His  wis 
dom  and  our  own   errors   therein  ; 
meanwhile  we  must  work  earnestly, 
in  the  best  light  He  gives  us,  trust 
ing  that  so  working  still  conduces  to 
the  great   end  He   ordains.     Surely 
He  intends  some  great  good  to  fol 
low  this   mighty    convulsion   which 
no  mortal  could  make,  and  no  mor 
tal  hand  could  stay.     For  those  ap 
pealing    to     me    on     conscientious 
grounds,  I    have   done  and  shall  do 
the  best  I  could  and  can  in   my  own 
conscience   under   my   oath  to   the 
law." 


136          Bbrabam  OLfncom. 

INAUGURAL  ADDRESS,  MARCH  5,  1865. 

"  '  Woe  unto  the  world  because  of 
offences,  for  it  must  needs  be  that 
offences  come  ;  but  woe  to  that 
man  by  whom  the  offense  cometh  !  ' 
If  we  still  suppose  that  American 
slavery  is  one  of  these  offences, 
which  in  the  providence  of  God 
must  needs  come,  but  which,  hav 
ing  continued  through  His  appointed 
time,  He  now  wills  to  remove,  and 
that  He  gives  to  both  North  and 
vSouth  this  terrible  war  as  the  woe 
due  to  those  by  whom  the  offense 
came,  shall  we  discern  therein  any 
departure  from  those  divine  attrib 
utes  which  the  believers  in  a  liv 
ing  God  always  ascribe  to  him  ? 
Fondly  do  we  hope,  fervently  do  we 
pray,  that  this  mighty  scourge  of 
war  may  speedily  pass  away.  Yet, 
if  God  wills  that  it  continue  until 
all  the  wealth  piled  by  the  bond 
man's  two  hundred  and  fifty  years 


Ualfc.  137 

of  unrequited  toil  shall  be  sunk, 
and  until  every  drop  of  blood 
drawn  with  the  lash  shall  be  paid 
with  another  drawn  with  the  sword, 
as  was  said  three  thousand  years 
ago,  so  still  it  must  be  said:  'The 
judgments  of  the  Lord  are  true  and 
righteous  altogether/  " 


MISCELLANEOUS. 

SPEECH  AT  OTTAWA,  ILLS.,  AUG.  ax,  1858. 

"  JN  this  and  like  communities,  pub 
lic  sentiment  is  everything. 
With  public  sentiment,  nothing  can 
fail;  without  it,  nothing  can  succeed. 
Consequently,  he  who  molds  public 
sentiment  goes  deeper  than  he  who 
enacts  statutes  or  pronounces  de 
cisions.  He  makes  statutes  or  de 
cisions  possible  or  impossible  to  be 
executed." 

• 

LETTER  TO  THURLOW  WEED,  MARCH 
15,  1865. 

"  Men  are  not  flattered  by  being 
shown  that  there  has  been  a  differ 
ence  of  purpose  between  the  Al 
mighty  and  them.  To  deny  it,  how- 


M°          Hbrabam  ^Lincoln. 

ever,  in  this  case,  is  to  deny  that 
there  is  a  God  governing  the  world. 
"It  is  a  truth  which  I  thought 
needed  to  be  told,  and,  as  whatever 
of  humiliation  there  is  in  it  falls 
most  directly  on  myself,  I  thought 
others  might  afford  for  me  to  tell 
it." 


SPEECH  AT  SPRINGFIELD,  JULY  17,  1858. 

"  It  would  be  amusing,  if  it  were 
not  disgusting  to  see  how  quickly 
these  compromise-breakers  ad 
minister  upon  the  effects  of  their 
dead  adversaries,  trumping  up 
claims  never  before  heard  of,  and 
dividing  the  assets  among  them 
selves.  If  I  should  be  found  dead 
to-morrow,  nothing  but  my  insignifi 
cance  could  prevent  a  speech  being 
made  upon  my  authority,  before  the 
end  of  next  week." 


{Table  (Talk.  141 

SPEECH,  PEORIA,  ILLS.,  AUG.,  ai,  1858. 

"  When  a  man  hears  himself  some 
what  misrepresented,  it  provokes 
him — at  least,  I  find  it  so  with  my 
self  ;  but  when  misrepresentation 
becomes  very  gross  and  palpable,  it 
is  more  apt  to  amuse  him." 
H 

COOPER  INSTITUTE,    FEB.  27,  1859. 

"  I  do  not  mean  to  say  we  are 
bound  to  follow  implicitly  in  what 
ever  our  fathers  did.  To  do  so 
would  be  to  discard  all  the  lights  of 
current  experience — to  reject  all 
progress — all  improvement.  What 
I  do  say  is,  that  if  we  would  sup 
plant  the  opinions  and  policy  of  our 
fathers  in  any  case,  we  should  do  so 
upon  evidence  so  conclusive,  and 
argument  so  clear,  that  even  their 
great  authority,  fairly  considered 
and  weighed,  cannot  stand  ;  and 
most  surely  not  in  a  case  whereof 
we  ourselves  declare  they  under 
stood  the  question  better  than  we." 


142          Bbrabam  Xincoln. 

MESSAGE  TO  CONGRESS,  JULY    4,  1861. 

"  Our  popular  government  has 
often  been  called  an  experiment. 
Two  points  in  it  our  people  have  al 
ready  settled — the  successful  estab 
lishing  and  the  successful  admin 
istering  of  it.  One  still  remains, — 
its  successful  maintenance  against  a 
formidable  attempt  to  overthrow 
it." 

H 

LETTER  TO  GEN.  N.  P.  BANKS,  IN 
LOUISIANA,  AUG.  5,  1863. 

"  As  an  anti-slavery  man,  I  have 
a  motive  to  desire  emancipation 
which  pro-slavery  men  do  not  have  ; 
but  even  they  have  strong  reason  to 
thus  place  themselves  again  under 
the  shield  of  the  Union,  and  to 
thus  perpetually  hedge  against  the 
recurrence  of  the  scenes  through 
which  we  are  now  passing.  .  .  .  For 
my  own  part,  I  think  I  shall  not,  in 
any  event,  retract  the  Emancipa- 


Gable  Galfc.  143 

tion  Proclamation  ;  nor,  as  Execu 
tive,  ever  return  to  slavery  any 
person  who  is  freed  by  the  terms  of 
that  proclamation,  or  by  any  of  the 
acts  of  Congress.'' 

H 

TO  KANSAS  DELEGATION,  SEPTEMBER, 
1863. 

"I  am  well  aware  that  by  many, 
by  some  even  among  this  delegation 
—I  shall  not  name  them — I  have 
been  in  public  speeches  and  in 
printed  documents  charged  with 
'  tyranny  and  wilfulness,'  with  a 
disposition  to  make  my  own  personal 
will  supreme.  I  do  not  intend  to  be 
a  tyrant.  At  all  events  I  shall  take 
care  that  in  my  own  eyes  I  do  not 
become  one.  I  have  no  right  to  act 
the  tyrant  to  mere  political  oppo 
nents.'* 


H4          Bbrabam  Xincoln. 

LETTER  TO  GOV.  ANDREW  JOHNSON, 
OF  TENNESSEE,  SEPT.  n,  1863. 

"  I  see  that  you  have  declared  in 
favor  of  emancipation  in  Tennessee, 
for  which  may  God  bless  you.  Get 
emancipation  into  your  new  State 
government  —  Constitution  —  and 
there  will  be  no  such  word  as  fail  for 
your  case.  The  raising  of  colored 
troops,  I  think,  will  greatly  help, 
every  way." 

H 

CONVERSATION  WITH   A  FRIEND. 

"  I  am  never  easy,  now,  when  1 
am  handling  a  thought,  until  I  have 
bounded  it  North,  and  bounded  it 
South,  and  bounded  it  East  and 
bounded  it  West." 

m 

CONVERSATION    WITH    HON.    CASSIU8 
M.  CLAY,  1862. 

"  Who  ever  heard  of  a  reformei 
reaping  the  reward  of  his  labors  in 
his  lifetime  !  " 


145 

"  Versatility  is  an  injurious  pos 
session,  since  it  never  can  be  great 
ness.  A  versatile  man,  to  be  safe 
from  execration,  should  never 
soar/' 

• 

LETTER,  JUNE  12,  1863,  TO  CITIZENS  OF 
NEW  YORK. 

"  Yet,  thoroughly  imbued  with  a 
reverence  for  the  guaranteed  rights 
of  individuals,  I  was  slow  to  adopt 
the  strong  measures  which  by  de 
grees  I  have  been  forced  to  regard 
as  being  within  the  exceptions  of 
the  Constitution,  and  as  indispensa 
ble  to  the  public  safety.  Nothing  is 
better  known  to  history  than  that 
courts  of  justice  are  utterly  incompe 
tent  in  such  cases." 
• 

LETTER  TO  DEMOCRATS  OF  OHIO, 
JUNE  29,  1863. 

"  You  ask,  in  substance,  whether 
I  really  claim  that  I  may  override 


146          Bbrabam  Xincoln. 

all  the  guaranteed  rights  of  individ 
uals  on  the  plea  of  conserving  the 
public  safety— -when  I  may  choose 
to  say  the  public  safety  requires  it. 
This  question,  divested  of  the 
phraseology  calculated  to  represent 
me  as  struggling  for  an  arbitrary 
personal  prerogrative,  is  either 
simply  a  question  who  shall  decide, 
or  an  affirmation  that  nobody  shall 
decide  what  the  public  safety  does  re 
quire  in  cases  of  rebellion  or  invasion. 
The  Constitution  contemplates  the 
question  as  likely  to  occur,  but  it 
does  not  expressly  declare  who  is  to 
decide  it.  By  necessary  implication, 
when  rebellion  or  invasion  comes, 
the  decision  is  to  be  made,  from 
time  to  time,  and  I  think  the  man 
whom,  for  the  time,  the  people 
have,  under  the  Constitution,  made 
the  Commander-in-chief  of  their 
army  and  navy,  is  the  man  who 
holds  the  power  and  bears  the  re- 


{Table  £alfe.  147 

sponsibility  ot  making  it.  If  he  uses 
the  power  justly,  the  same  people 
will  probably  justify  him  ;  if  he 
abuses  it,  he  is  in  their  hands  to  be 
dealt  with  by  all  the  modes  they 
have  reserved  to  themselves  in  the 
Constitution." 

• 

LETTER  TO    HENRY  W.  HOFFMAN,  OF 
MARYLAND,  OCT.  10,  1864. 

"  I  presume  the  only  feature  of  the 
instrument  (the  new  Constitution  of 
Maryland)  about  which  there  is  seri 
ous  controversy,  is  that  which  pro 
vides  for  the  extinction  of  slavery. 
It  needs  not  to  be  a  secret,  and  I  pre 
sume  it  is  no  secret,  that  I  wish  suc 
cess  to  this  provision.  I  desire  it  on 
every  consideration.  I  wish  all  men 
to  be  free.  I  wish  the  material  pros 
perity  of  the  already  free,  which  I 
feel  sure  the  extinction  of  slavery 
would  bring.  I  wish  to  see  in  proc 
ess  of  disappearing  that  only  thing 


M&          Bbrabam  Xincoln. 

which  ever  could  bring  this  nation 
to  civil   war.     I    attempt  no   argu 
ment.     Argument  upon  the  question 
is  already  exhausted." 
H 

LETTER  TO  MRS.  BIXBY,  OF  BOSTON, 

WHOSE  FIVE  SONS  HAD  FALLEN  IN 

BATTLE  :   NOV.  21,1864. 

"  I  pray  that  our  Heavenly  Father 
may  assuage  the  anguish  of  your 
bereavement,  and  leave  you  only  the 
cherished  memory  of  the  loved  and 
lost,  and  the  solemn  pride  that  must 
be  yours  to  have  laid  so  costly  a 
sacrifice  upon  the  altar  of  freedom." 
• 

COOPER  INSTITUTE  ADDRESS,  1860. 

"  Let  us  be  diverted  by  none  of 
those  sophistical  contrivances  where 
with  we  are  so  industriously  plied 
and  belabored — contrivances,  such 
as  groping  for  some  middle  ground 
between  the  right  and  the  wrong  ; 
vain  is  the  search  for  a  man  who 


{Table  Calk.  149 

should  be  neither  a  living  man  nor  a 
dead  man — such  as  a  policy  of 
1  don't  care  '  on  a  question  about 
which  all  true  men  do  care — such  as 
Union  appeals  beseeching  true 
Union  men  to  yield  to  Disunionists, 
reversing  the  divine  rule  and  calling, 
not  the  sinners  but  the  righteous  to 
repentance." 

• 

TO  HON.  HORACE  GREELEY,  NEW  YORK, 
AUG.  22,  1862. 

"  I  would  save  the  Union.  I  would 
save  it  in  the  shortest  way  under  the 
Constitution.  The  sooner  the  na 
tional  authority  can  be  restored, 
the  nearer  the  Union  will  be  *  the 
Union  as  it  was.'  If  there  be 
those  who  would  not  save  the 
Union  unless  they  could  at  the 
same  time  save  slavery,  I  do  not 
agree  with  them.  If  there  be  those 
who  would  not  save  the  Union  un 
less  they  could  at  the  same  time 


150          Bbrabam  ^Lincoln. 

destroy  slavery,  I  do  not  agree  with 
them.  My  paramount  object  in  this 
struggle  is  to  save  the  Union,  and  is 
not  either  to  save  or  destroy  slavery. 
If  I  could  save  the  Union  without 
freeing  any  slave,  I  would  do  it  ; 
and  if  I  could  save  it  by  freeing  all 
the  slaves,  I  would  do  it  ;  and  if  I 
could  save  it  by  freeing  some  and 
leaving  others  alone,  I  would  also 
do  that.  What  I  do  about  slavery 
and  the  colored  race,  I  do  because  1 
believe  it  helps  to  save  the  Union, 
and  what  I  forbear,  I  forbear  be 
cause  I  do  not  believe  it  would  help 
to  save  the  Union." 

H 

SPEECH  AT  ALTON,  ILLS.,  OCT.  15,  1858. 

"  Is  it  not  a  false  statesmanship 
that  undertakes  to  build  up  a  system 
of  policy  upon  the  basis  of  caring 
nothing  about  the  very  thing  that 
everybody  does  care  the  most  about  ? 


Gable  Galfc,  is1 

— a  thing  which   all  experience  has 

shown  we  care  a  great  deal  about  ?  " 

B9 

SPEECH  AT  COLUMBUS,  O.,  SEPT.,  1859. 

"  I  avoid  doing  so  (fighting  a  fal 
lacy)  upon  this  principle — that  if  it 
were  important  for  me  to  pass  out 
of  this  lot  in  the  least  period  of 
time  possible,  and  I  came  to  that 
fence  and  saw  by  a  calculation  of 
my  known  strength  and  agility  that 
I  could  clear  it  at  a  bound,  it  would 
be  folly  for  me  to  stop  and  consider 
whether  I  could  or  not  crawl 
through  a  crack." 


SPEECH  AT  GALESBURG,  ILLS.,  OCT.  7, 
1858. 

"  He  could  not  denounce  the  doc 
trine  of  kings  and  monarchies  in 
Russia,  and  it  may  be  true  of  this 
country,  that  in  some  places  we 
may  not  be  able  to  proclaim  a  doc 
trine  as  clearly  true  as  the  truth  of 


152          Bbrabam  Xtncoln. 

Democracy,  because  there  is  a  sec 
tion  so  directly  opposed  to  it  that 
they  will  not  tolerate  us  in  doing  so. 
Is  it  the  true  test  of  the  soundness 
of  a  doctrine,  that  in  some  places 
the  people  will  not  let  you  proclaim 
it  ?  Is  that  the  way  to  test  the 
truth  of  any  doctrine  ?" 

m 

"  Whatever  motive  a  man  or  set 
of  men  may  have  for  making  annex 
ation  of  property  or  territory  (to  the 
nation)  it  is  very  easy  to  assert, 
much  less  easy  to  disprove,  that  it 
is  necessary  for  the  wants  of  the 
country." 

• 

CONVERSATION  WITH  W.  H.  HERNDON, 
1850. 

"  How  hard,  oh,  how  hard  it  is  to 
die,  and  leave  one's  country  no  bet 
ter  than  if  one  had  never  lived  for 
it  !  The  world  is  dead  to  hope, 
deaf  to  its  own  death-struggle,  made 


(Table  ftalfc.  153 

known  by  a  universal  cry.  What  is 
to  be  done  ?  Is  anything  to  be 
done  ?  Who  can  do  anything  ? 
And  how  is  it  to  be  done  ?  Did  you 
ever  think  of  these  things  ? " 
• 

SPEECH  AT  SPRINGFIELD,  ILLS.,  JUNE 
17,  1859. 

"We  did  this  (organized  the 
party)  under  the  single  impulse  of 
resistance  to  a  common  danger, 
with  every  external  circumstance 
against  us.  Of  strange,  discordant, 
and  even  hostile  elements,  we 
gathered  from  the  four  winds,  and 
formed  and  fought  the  battle 
through. 

H 

OTTAWA  SPEECH,  AUG.  ax,  1858. 

"  My  own  feelings  will  not  admit 
of  this  ;  and  if  mine  would,  we  well 
know  that  those  of  the  great  mass 
of  white  people  will  not.  Whether 
this  feeling  accords  with  justice  and 


154          Bbraoam  ILfncoin. 

sound  judgment  is  not  the  sole 
question,  if,  indeed,  it  is  any  part  of 
it.  A  universal  feeling,  whether 
well  or  ill  founded,  cannot  be  safely 
disregarded." 

H 

SPEECH  AT  FREEPORT,  AUG.  27,  1858. 

"  I  can  conceive  it  possible  for 
men  to  conspire  to  do  a  good  thing, 
and  I  really  find  nothing  in  Judge 
Douglas's  course  or  arguments  that 
is  contrary  to  or  inconsistent  with 
his  belief  of  a  conspiracy  to  national 
ize  and  spread  slavery  as  a  good  and 
blessed  thing." 


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